South Africa’s post-apartheid transition envisaged a decentralised, developmental state with local municipalities at the coalface of addressing socio-economic inequalities and delivering essential services to their communities.

However, the realities and the magnitude of South Africa’s challenges have hampered the realisation of this ideal. Many municipalities grapple with a multi-layered web of challenges that hinder effective basic service delivery, and which make it difficult to promote economic development and to foster good governance.

Over the years, challenges such as a lack of skilled personnel (capacity deficit), financial constraints, political interference, corruption and inadequate avenues for meaningful community participation have rendered many of the 257 municipalities (44 district, 205 local and 8 metropolitan) unable to fulfil their constitutionally mandated roles.

Paper by the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference Parliamentary Liaison Office