Every Municipality Must Work
Honourable Speaker,
Honourable Members of the National Assembly,
Cabinet Colleagues, Deputy Ministers,
Dr Dickson Masemola and Burns Ncamashe
Chairperson of the National House of Traditional and Khoi-San Leaders,
President of SALGA,
Members of this House
Chairperson of the Municipal Demarcation Board,
Directors-General,
Leaders of Organised Labour,
Fellow South Africans,
Good afternoon.
It is my honour to present to this House Budget Vote 3: Cooperative Governance and Budget Vote 15: Traditional Affairs for the 2026/27 financial year.
BUDGET ALLOCATIONS
The 2026/27 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework allocates a total of R423.4 billion to Votes 3 and 15: Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
Of this:
These allocations support our mandate to strengthen local government, support the institution of traditional leadership, and ensure that cooperative governance functions effectively across all spheres of government.
Honourable Members, this budget must be understood in context.
In the previous financial year, the government allocated:
Additional allocations are being finalised:
Furthermore, R166 million was reprioritised from the Municipal Infrastructure Grant to respond to recent floods, especially in Limpopo, Mpumalanga and other provinces.
Honourable Members, this budget is not an accounting exercise; it is a delivery instrument. It must translate into functioning municipalities and improved lives.
REFORMING THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT SYSTEM
Honourable Members, our people expect municipalities to work.
Last year, we committed to reviewing the White Paper on local government to better serve our people. The review of the White Paper on Local Government has now been completed under the theme:
“Every Municipality Must Work.”
This is not a slogan, it is a commitment.
The revised White Paper recognises that local government today operates in a far more complex environment than in 1998. It provides a renewed and realistic framework to strengthen governance, accountability and service delivery.
To give effect to this, we are advancing key legislative reforms:
These reforms are about one thing: stabilising municipalities so that service delivery becomes reliable, predictable and consistent.
PREPARING FOR THE 2026 LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS, 2026
Preparations for the 2026 Local Government Elections, scheduled for 4 November 2026, are firmly on track.
We have achieved critical milestones:
The key principle guiding us is simple:
The elections must be free, fair, credible, and beyond reproach.
BUILDING CAPABLE, ETHICAL AND ACCOUNTABLE MUNICIPALITIES
A capable state requires capable institutions.
Municipalities cannot function where:
We are therefore strengthening:
The introduction of the Code for Ethical Leadership, together with ethics training programmes, is reinforcing accountability.
Without ethical leadership, no reform will succeed.
IMPROVING AUDIT OUTCOMES
Despite challenges, we are beginning to see progress:
This tells us something important:
Where there is discipline, monitoring and consequence management, improvement follows.
However, we must be equally candid:
Too many municipalities continue to struggle. Weak governance and financial mismanagement remain a serious concern.
TARGETED INTERVENTIONS IN DISTRESSED MUNICIPALITIES
The government continues to provide differentiated support where municipalities are in distress.
In Emfuleni, a Special Purpose Vehicle with Rand Water is being established to stabilise water services.
In Ditsobotla, following chronic instability, national intervention has:
We will not hesitate to intervene where municipalities fail communities.
STRENGTHENING SERVICE DELIVERY AND INFRASTRUCTURE
The District Development Model remains central to our work.
But we are now shifting it to a new phase:
From planning to delivery.
This includes:
At the same time, infrastructure remains a major constraint.
We are exploring:
We must move beyond reliance on limited municipal balance sheets.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND ECONOMIC PARTICIPATION
The Community Work Programme currently supports over 186 000 participants.
We are repositioning it toward:
Participants are already contributing to:
This programme must become a pathway to economic opportunity, not only income support.
DISASTER PREPAREDNESS AND RESILIENCE
Honourable Members, South Africa is experiencing increasingly frequent disasters.
Recent events have affected multiple provinces, including:
It is important to distinguish between:
The increasing number of disaster classifications, including severe weather, drought and other risks, places growing pressure on:
Response alone is no longer sufficient.
We must strengthen:
Every disaster exposes underlying governance and planning weaknesses.
TRADITIONAL AFFAIRS
We continue to address the Constitutional Court ruling through the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Bill (2025), which has now been introduced in Parliament.
Progress is also being made on:
CUSTOMARY INITIATION
Government remains committed to achieving zero initiation fatalities.
We are strengthening:
We are also exploring stronger legal consequences for negligence.
No cultural practice must result in loss of life.
INTEGRATION OF TRADITIONAL LEADERSHIP
We are strengthening the role of traditional leadership in governance.
This includes:
Development in rural areas will not succeed without this partnership.
CONCLUSION
Honourable Members,
This Budget Vote marks a clear shift:
From diagnosis to delivery.
We are:
Guided by the principle:
“Every Municipality Must Work,”
We are committed to building a capable, ethical, and responsive system of local government.
I hereby table:
for consideration and approval by this Honourable House.
I thank you.