South Africa is about to elect people who will oversee municipalities already struggling with billions in financial losses and failing services.
But for voters, the audit numbers raise a question beyond whether municipalities are financially sound: who is choosing the people who will be responsible for overseeing them, and are those people equipped to do the job?
Here's the problem. There is no national minimum competency requirement for councillors. And, therefore political parties have very different approaches to selecting and vetting candidates.
So what should voters be looking for? The question comes as the Auditor-General’s latest report paints a bleak picture of local government.
Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke said the sixth administration had failed to achieve the turnaround needed in local government.
Only 39 of the country’s 257 municipalities achieved clean audits in 2024-25, while 38 municipalities had regressed from their 2020-21 audit outcomes.
In her report, Maluleke said: “The 6th administration did not achieve the desired turnaround in local government.”
She said mayors and councils had made limited progress in strengthening governance and improving service delivery.
The AG’s findings put the spotlight not only on the state of municipal finances, but also on the people who will be elected to oversee them.
“The calibre and capability of the elected leaders will determine the success of the 7th administration,” Maluleke said.
Municipal councils have a major role in overseeing budgets, spending, service delivery and the performance of municipal administrations.
Yet there is currently no legislative requirement for councillors to have a specific educational qualification or minimum competency level.
The South African Local Government Association (SALGA) said councillors instead receive training after they are elected.
SALGA’s Motalatale Modiba said there was no competency test before someone became a councillor, although there was an extensive programme designed to build competence once councillors were elected.
“Currently, there is no legislative requirement for councillors to possess a specific educational qualification or minimum competency level,” he said.
The training covers governance, legislation, ethics, leadership, oversight, municipal finance, planning, accountability and service delivery.
But the Auditor-General has warned that the quality of political leadership matters. Her report recommends that political parties prioritise “the capability and integrity of the candidates put forward as council members and mayors”.
It also calls for high-quality induction of new councillors, with particular attention to members of mayoral committees responsible for finance.
Corruption Watch said voters should also look beyond formal qualifications.
Janine Erasmus from Corruption Watch said candidates should have a track record that could be checked, including what they had achieved in previous positions, what they had prioritised and whether they had been involved in scandals.
Candidates should also be transparent about business interests that could create conflicts with the municipality, she said.
“Definitely a track record that can be checked to see if they walked the talk,” Erasmus said.
She said councillors needed enough knowledge of municipal financial rules to recognise warning signs and properly oversee officials.
“They must be able to identify red flags for possible corruption, and spot where officials may not be giving the full picture or explanation.”
Erasmus said political parties should conduct more rigorous vetting before candidates were put forward, including checking previous conduct and comparing declared interests with company records.
This matters because the Auditor-General found persistent weaknesses in procurement and contract management. Municipalities and their entities incurred R40.14 bn in irregular expenditure in 2024-25 alone, bringing the total since 2021-22 to R145.21 bn.
The Auditor-General also found that 116 municipalities, or 45%, adopted unfunded budgets in 2024-25.
At the end of the financial year, 174 municipalities did not have enough cash to pay their creditors.
The problems extend beyond financial management.
The AG made material findings on the usefulness and reliability of performance information at 123 municipalities, while 215 municipalities received material findings on compliance with legislation.
Against this backdrop, the Local Government: Municipal Structures Amendment Bill currently before Parliament proposes changes aimed at strengthening the functioning and accountability of municipal councils and office bearers.
The debate has raised a wider question about whether councillors should face more formal requirements before taking office.
The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs(Cogta), however, does not support or propose a national minimum competency requirement for candidates.
The department’s Legadima Leso said such a change would require constitutional and legislative consideration.
Instead, the department points to councillor induction and ongoing capacity building.
“Councillor development is an ongoing process and does not end with induction,” Leso said.
Professor PS Reddy, from the Graduate School of Business & Leadership at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, believes prospective councillors should ideally have at least a matric qualification and some tertiary education.
He said education was important for understanding legislation, policy documents and municipal budgets, while financial literacy was particularly important for interrogating budgets, financial statements and technical reports.
But Reddy cautioned against treating qualifications as a guarantee of good political leadership.
“It is not the be-all and end-all,” he said.
He said he had encountered highly qualified councillors who were poor public representatives, as well as councillors with matric or less who had been excellent representatives.
What mattered, he said, was whether candidates were public-spirited and had a track record of working with local communities. He warned against political parties putting forward candidates primarily because they needed positions or income.
“We cannot have a situation where the emphasis is on material benefits,” Reddy said.
He said voters should look for candidates with a commitment to serving their communities, public accountability and a willingness to provide regular feedback to constituents.
Professor Busani Ngcaweni, director of the Centre for Public Policy at the University of Johannesburg, agreed that formal qualifications should be distinguished from governing competence.
“A degree may indicate knowledge in a particular field, but it does not automatically prepare somebody to govern a municipality. Equally, someone without a university degree may possess considerable political judgement, community knowledge and leadership capability.”
On the question on financial literacy, Ngcaweni said councillor do not need to become accountants, but those voting on a municipal budget must understand what they are voting for.
He said the key issue is development that starts at the political party level.
“Instead of repeatedly asking whether incoming councillors have the right qualifications, we should ask what institutional system exists to convert elected representatives into capable governors? Political parties must begin that process before elections. Municipalities and SALGA must deepen it immediately after elections and sustain it throughout the term.”
Ngcaweni said councillors need to understand the Constitution, municipal legislation, the Municipal Finance Management Act, budgets, procurement, oversight and the political-administrative interface. But they must also be developed as leaders, problem-solvers and drivers of institutional change.
The question for voters is whether the people chosen to oversee them are ready for the job.
MUNICIPALITY BY NUMBERS
The National Treasury’s 2024/25 MFMA Compliance Report highlights the financial consequences of persistent weaknesses in municipal management:
R145.21bn irregular expenditure incurred by municipalities and municipal entities since 2021/22.
R40.14bn irregular expenditure incurred in 2024/25 alone.
R24.12bn cumulative fruitless and wasteful expenditure since 2021/22.
R118.13bn unauthorised expenditure disclosed since 2021/22.
116 municipalities adopted unfunded budgets in 2024/25, representing 45% of municipalities.
R3.40bn in interest owed to Eskom by municipalities at year-end.
R1.21bn in interest owed to water boards.
48 municipalities had third-party deductions overdue by more than one month.