Musa Jack, manager of a multi-year Anglo American programme to fix municipalities, says the government needs to do much more to address corruption and political instability at local government level.
“Government has called on the private sector to come on board and work with them to improve local government, and that is what we are doing. But that doesn’t mean we can replace what government itself is meant to be doing,” she says.
The Anglo American Municipal Capability & Partnership Programme (MCPP) has vastly improved the performance of eight municipalities in Limpopo, the Northern Cape and North West since it started in 2020, but Jack says there’s a limit to how much the private sector can do.
“We need to be realistic and not oversell the programme. It cannot address issues of local government corruption and political instability. That is a space where we don’t go.
“We’re of the view that we [should] rather focus on areas where we’ve got an opportunity to make the necessary impact. But we have asked government to play a more leading role in addressing these issues.”
It is also not the business of the private sector to deal with the systemic causes of the country’s municipal crisis, which goes back to the 1998 white paper on local government. “A big part of the local government challenge is systemic, and we’re not in a position to address that. That can only be done by the government, which is responsible for developing the legislative framework that guides how local government should function.”
One of [the assumptions that were made in the late 1990s and early 2000s] was that municipalities would generate 80% of their revenue by charging for the services they provide to communities and households, and 20% would come from government grants. But the reality on the ground now is very different.
— Musa Jack, manager of Anglo American programme to fix municipalities
Jack applauds co-operative governance & traditional affairs minister Velenkosini Hlabisa’s recent announcement of a review of the 1998 white paper on local government, and his call for “decisive action” to fix municipalities, which he said were in “crisis”.
“That is a recognition of the need to tackle the systemic problem which is that local government has to fund itself with rates and government grants.”
Jack, a qualified town and regional planner, helped develop this rates and grants-based local government model 25 years ago. “There were some assumptions that were made way back in the late 1990s and early 2000s when the post-apartheid system of local government was being developed.
“One of them was that municipalities would generate 80% of their revenue by charging for the services they provide to communities and households, and 20% would come from government grants. But the reality on the ground now is very different.”
It was not anticipated that socio-economic issues would be as dire as they are today, she says. “There were no indications back then that the levels of unemployment and indigence of communities would be where they are now.”
The reality facing municipalities is that many people, especially in rural areas, are not able to pay for the services municipalities are meant to provide. And due to a lack of data and skills, municipalities are not able to collect the money from those who are able to pay.
The MCPP Jack leads has been evaluating the systems and processes municipalities need to execute their service delivery mandate. They’ve had to address “chronic understaffing in technical positions, inadequate financial management systems and deteriorating infrastructure maintenance, among other challenges”, she says.
They’ve been hugely successful compared with other public private partnerships in the local government sphere.
In the Blouberg local municipality in Limpopo, they’ve worked alongside the municipal project management unit to develop standard operating procedures and train local officials. For the first time since its inception, the municipality has managed to complete capital projects on time and within budget.
Also for the first time Blouberg allocated funds for road maintenance and, as a result of its improved track record, secured an additional R10m in municipal infrastructure grant funding for this financial year.
In the platinum group metal-rich Mogalakwena municipality, also in Limpopo, where water losses have been devastating, the MCPP helped improve data management and leak detection, resulting in losses dropping from 57% in 2022 to 51% in 2024. Millions of litres of water have been saved in a region where supply constraints threaten communities and industry.
The fact that out of the 257 municipalities just 34 received clean audits in 2024 — with at least 196 either distressed or at risk of financial collapse — suggests that few, if any, other public private partnerships in the local government sphere have had comparable successes.
Many private initiatives have been resisted by the municipalities they’re trying to help. This is because “they send experts and consultants to take over, and you end up with a municipality within a municipality”, says Jack.
“Municipal officials become passive recipients of private sector support. Our approach is to work together with, not on behalf of, the municipality.”
She believes this is why they haven’t had the kind of push-back many other private sector partnerships have. “They’re less partnerships than takeovers. We started our MCPP in 2020, and for the first 12 months invested a lot of time going to these municipalities, and establishing a relationship of trust that you need for municipalities to work with you and help you identify the areas where they need support.”
The main reason why so many private sector programmes have not had an impact is that “they go in with a condescending approach”, says Jack. “Like they’re coming as saviours, coming to save the municipality with their skills, rather than recognising that there are people in the municipality who are qualified and have skills, even if they don’t have the necessary experience.”
Public private partnerships must be built on trust or they won’t work, she says.
“We’re working extremely well with municipalities now, to the point where they sometimes ask us to provide support in areas we are not currently prioritising... simply because of the type of relationship we worked hard to establish. Because of this we’re seen as partners in the true sense of the word.”
Anglo is supporting these eight municipalities because they have operations in those jurisdictions. Once the lifespan of particular Anglo mines comes to an end, so will their support. What happens then?
Because they’ve not only transferred technical skills to individuals but established systems, processes and tools, Jack is confident these municipalities won’t regress after the Anglo team has left — provided the government deals effectively with corruption and political instability.
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