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COGTA Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa leads a high-level engagement with business leaders at the East London International Convention Centre in the Eastern Cape on July 30, 2025.
Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa has reiterated the call for non-viable municipalities to cease to exist and believes keeping them is irresponsible and hinders service delivery
At least 65% of municipalities in the country are in financial distress.
Hlabisa was engaging the business sector in East London, Eastern Cape during his consultations on the review of the 1998 White Paper on local government.
He says every municipality must submit annual financial statements as means of accountability to the public.
Hlabisa says, “If you have municipality that fails dismally, why should you carry on with that municipality? Why don’t you combine it or merge with other municipalities so that people get more benefit? If you merge municipalities it doesn’t affect the representation on the ground because wards remain as wards.”
He has further stressed the need to deploy competent individuals in key positions within municipalities.
“If they do not have sufficient competencies that will be reflected in the failure to spend money at their disposal, municipalities with competent staff will finish the allocation and even get the additional allocation when the year begins from municipalities that failed to spend.”
White Paper
Businesses believe the review of the White Paper on local government should be conducted on a regular basis.
Border Keir Business Chamber CEO, Lizelle Maurice says, “I think this review is way overdue, it should have been a discussion every five years. There should be a review every five years so that government can see what we are doing things right and are talking to the needs of business people, because remember local government creates an environment in which businesses must thrive, if they are not doing so it makes business very difficult to thrive.”
The revised White Paper is scheduled to be submitted to cabinet by March next year.
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