Poor services due to unstable coalitions, says Mashatile

Deputy President Paul Mashatile said on Tuesday that the instability of local government coalitions has been a major contributing factor to poor service delivery in many municipalities. 

Speaking at the South African Local Government Association’s national executive committee lekgotla in Cape Town, Mashatile said the coalitions have compromised municipalities’ ability to adopt policies, pass budgets, adopt by-laws, and make senior management appointments.

“After the 2021 local government elections, we have witnessed an increase in municipalities with hung councils. This has forced many municipal councils to be governed through coalitions. However, in practice, coalition governments have been unstable and are often terminated before the end of their term of office.” 

Mashatile said the drive to professionalise the public service will ensure that the government can deliver essential services.

“As SALGA, you should work with the national government in the local sphere as the driver of professionalisation.

“I believe that our municipalities can be fixed. We just need more concerted efforts in the implementation of the professionalisation framework, which applies to the national, provincial, and local governments, and SOEs. The framework focuses on accelerating service delivery and addressing poor performance and skills gaps in the public service.”

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