United Democratic Movement (UDM) founding president Gen Bantu Holomisa said one of the greatest contributors to municipal collapse across South Africa has been the blurring of lines between politics and administration.
Holomisa said once politicians begin deciding who gets contracts, who gets appointed and who benefits from municipal resources, service delivery becomes secondary and communities suffer.
Launching his party’s 2026 local government elections manifesto in KuGompo City on Saturday, Holomisa said if his party could be given the mandate, it “will defend the professionalisation of local government because competent municipalities deliver services and incompetent municipalities create crises”.
Holomisa was speaking during his party’s sixth national elective conference held at the city’s Jan Smuts Stadium, where more than 2,000 voting party delegates from across the country had converged.
Unveiling his party’s manifesto for the November 4 municipal elections, Holomisa said his party was launching a manifesto that was practical, realistic and rooted in the daily experiences of South Africans.
The party’s 12-pillar manifesto plans for the elections, Holomisa said, “provides a comprehensive programme for rebuilding municipalities and restoring public confidence in local government.”
Reliable basic services and maintenance, Holomisa said, would come first in their list of priorities for a better local government sphere.
He said this was because no municipality could succeed if residents did not have reliable access to water, sanitation, electricity, roads, refuse removal and functioning public infrastructure.
“The second pillar is clean governance and financial discipline, because corruption, maladministration and wasteful expenditure are stealing resources that should be improving the lives of our people.
“The third pillar is fair tariffs, responsible revenue and protection of indigent households, because municipalities must collect revenue fairly while protecting vulnerable households and ensuring residents receive value for money,” he said.
Holomisa said also important would be local economic development, opportunity and dignity, because municipalities must become engines of growth that support small businesses, co-operatives, informal traders, township enterprises and local job creation.
“Our fifth pillar is housing, land use and integrated human settlements, because people deserve housing developments that are planned properly, connected to services and linked to economic opportunity.
“While rural revitalisation and urban renewal are also important because rural villages, townships, towns and cities face different challenges and require targeted interventions.
“Our seventh pillar is safe, liveable and climate-resilient communities, because communities cannot thrive in environments characterised by crime, neglect, environmental degradation and poor disaster preparedness.
“Public health, clean communities and environmental health, is also one of the pillars, because clean water, functioning sanitation, refuse removal and environmental management are fundamental to human dignity,” Holomisa said.
As part of its manifesto promises, the party will also prioritise youth, sport, culture, social development, participatory democracy and accountable councillors.
This, he said, was because young people deserve opportunities to develop their talents, access facilities and participate in community life, while communities must be partners in governance and councillors must remain visible, accessible and accountable.
Another of the party’s pillars, is “responsible coalitions and co-operative governance, because coalition politics is now a reality in South Africa and must be guided by principles, stability and service delivery rather than political opportunism”.
“These are not theoretical pillars. They are practical commitments designed to address the daily realities faced by South Africans.
“Underlying these 12 pillars are six simple principles, that is basic services must be reliable, public money must be protected, councillors and officials must be accountable, communities must be treated as partners, municipalities must be stable, ethical and capable, and councillors must provide oversight and must never interfere in procurement or administration.
‘A councillor is not a municipal manager, a procurement officer, or a tender adjudicator, but there to represent communities, monitor implementation, exercise oversight and ensure accountability.
“Once politicians begin deciding who gets contracts, who gets appointed and who benefits from municipal resources, service delivery becomes secondary and communities suffer,” Holomisa said.
He added: “The truth is that municipalities have not failed because communities are impossible to serve, but because the basic principles of governance have been abandoned.
“Too many municipalities have become centres of patronage rather than centres of service delivery.
“Political loyalty has been rewarded ahead of competence. Public funds have been diverted away from the needs of communities.
“Infrastructure has been neglected until it collapses completely. Audit findings have been ignored. Corruption has gone unpunished, and councillors have disappeared from communities and resurfaced only when elections approach.
“The result is that ordinary residents are paying more and receiving less. Businesses are struggling to survive because municipalities cannot provide reliable services. Young people are trapped in communities where there are few opportunities and little economic activity, and poor households are expected to pay for services that often do not work.
“This is not what local government was intended to be.”
Daily Dispatch
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.