Good Governance Africa (GGA) has revealed that the Newcastle Municipality ranks among the top 10 performing secondary city municipalities in South Africa, according to its latest Governance Performance Index (GPI).
Firstly, Good Governance Africa (GGA) is a research and advocacy non-profit organisation with centres across Africa focussing solely on improving governance across Africa.
The organisation’s work is based on exploring the key governance principles of democracy, accountability, and transparency, and combining these with the rule of law and respecting human, civil and property rights.
With this in mind, GGA has officially released its 2024 Governance Performance Index (GPI) for South Africa. An index which takes a close look at exactly how well municipalities are performing in order to assist in targeting interventions.
When looking at municipalities’ performance and the GPI, the GGA looked at the following factors when conducting their report:
- Administration and governance
- Economic Development
- Leadership and Management
- Planning, monitoring and evaluation
- Service delivery (which was weighted the most).
When considering that among the core inputs of the GPI are the Auditor-General of South Africa’s annual MFMA reports and the Department of Water and Sanitation’s Blue Drop, Green Drop and No Drop reports, it should come as no surprise that the Western Cape showed dominance.
However, assessing the state of local governance and sentiment across other provinces, it is noteworthy that compared to the 2021 GPI, KZN municipalities performed slightly better on average, mostly as a result of improved performance in the categories of Administration and Governance, and Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation. In fact, according to the GGA, KZN overtook Gauteng as the province with the second highest average GPI score among local municipalities.
Furthermore, in terms of the 2024 GPI C2 Water Services Authority District Municipality Rank, the Amajuba District ranked 11th out of 21 district municipalities with the same responsibilities. It should be highlighted that C1 district municipalities do not have water supply and sanitation responsibilities, whereas C2 District Municipalities do, which was why the Amajuba District Municipality was ranked in this category.
Turning to Newcastle Municipality’s official standing in the GPI, it ranked sixth out of 19 secondary city local municipalities, outperforming the Msunduzi (Pietermaritzburg) Municipality, only to be outdone by the likes of Drakenstein Municipality, Stellenbosch Municipality and George Municipality.
In conclusion, GGA stressed the importance of broader societal involvement in democratic governance and further encouraged citizens to engage not only in formal local structures like ward committees, but also in strengthening independent national-level organisations such as AGSA, Statistics South Africa, and the Electoral Commission.
To view the full report from Good Governance Africa, click here.
With Newcastle Municipality receiving a positive rating from GGA, what are your thoughts?
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