Your Municipal Rates Are Rising—But Your Services Are Dying. Here’s Why

Imagine waking up to find no water in the taps, the power cut off without warning, and raw sewage flowing past your doorstep — again. For millions of South Africans, this isn’t some distant fear. It’s a lived reality, repeated so often that households now prepare for outages and breakdowns as a matter of routine.

We’ve normalised the abnormal. The public has been conditioned to tolerate dysfunction from the very institutions tasked with delivering the most basic functions of a civilised state — water, sanitation, electricity. And yet, municipal rates continue to rise while the services they’re meant to fund collapse around us.

While households continue to pay rates and taxes, many municipalities are falling deeper into financial distress—racking up billions in unpaid debt, employing costly consultants with minimal return, and failing to account for how public funds are spent.

When digging deeper into this, recent data reveals this is not an isolated problem, but a substantial national issue pulling daily lives into difficult situations.

Therefore, this article explores key findings from the Auditor-General of South Africa’s (AGSA) 2023–2024 Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) report and assesses their direct implications for public services, governance, and community welfare.

Firstly, the AGSA identified more than R8.7 billion in material irregularities in 2023–2024, largely tied to non-delivery or substandard goods and services. Municipal finances continue to haemorrhage, with procurement inefficiencies and inflated tenders draining critical resources.

Compounding the problem, municipalities are collectively owed over R405 billion, predominantly by households. This limits their capacity to pay service providers, including Eskom—owed over R70 billion—and water boards, owed R22 billion.

Towns like Emfuleni lose over R1 billion annually to water leaks and theft, with little left for upgrades or basic maintenance.

Furthermore, when looking at companies hired to ensure professional results, in 2023–24, municipalities spent R1.47 billion on consultants to prepare financial reports, yet nearly 60% of those reports contained material errors. Of the 99 municipalities that eventually received unqualified audits, 71 only did so after correcting poor-quality submissions during the audit process.

In addition, 113 municipalities tabled unfunded budgets—86 of them for three consecutive years. This entrenched pattern of over-expenditure has become a norm rather than an exception.

Over and the above this, only 16% of municipalities (41 out of 257) achieved clean audits in 2023–24. The remainder showed varying degrees of failure:

• 99 received unqualified audit opinions with findings
• 56 received qualified opinions
• 7 received adverse opinions
• 14 were issued disclaimed opinions—signifying that auditors could not determine the financial position due to inadequate records

These outcomes signal widespread deficiencies in financial control, legislative compliance, and institutional oversight.

In municipalities like Makana and Ditsobotla, financial mismanagement translates directly into prolonged water cuts, rolling blackouts, and overflowing sewage systems.

Infrastructure is failing across the country—not in theory, but in practice and without rapid solutions, will more then likely crumble in the years to come, resulting in a predicament never before seen in South Africa.

A tragic example of the implications of infrastructure decline comes out of Hammanskraal, where 20 lives were lost to cholera in 2023 due to neglected water infrastructure. Of 113 infrastructure projects reviewed nationally, 77% were delayed, over budget, or poorly executed. Just let that sink in for a minute.

Now, let us not forget, that municipal instability also affects businesses, deterring investment and job creation in already strained local economies.

Service delivery is further compromised by high vacancy rates and political interference in key appointments. For instance, Buffalo City reportedly left its district engineer post for electricity vacant for over 80 months.

Where municipal managers and chief financial officers are politically appointed rather than merit-selected, accountability is weak. The AGSA and oversight institutions warn that a lack of consequences for mismanagement perpetuates dysfunction.

However, amid the dysfunction, several municipalities stand out for consistent, clean governance.

The City of Cape Town, Midvaal, Drakenstein, Swartland, and Saldanha Bay have all achieved consecutive clean audits. Even in KwaZulu-Natal, the smaller eMadlangeni (Utrecht) Local Municipality demonstrated that effective governance is possible under financial constraints.

These municipalities show that transparency, stable leadership, and proper project management can create reliable services and public trust. Additionally, this sends up a signal to investors stating that “we are a safe investement”, ensuring the local economy contiunes to progress.

But, to restore effective local government, entities including AGSA, OUTA, and SAICA recommend:

• Provincial Intervention: Timely and assertive oversight to enforce compliance
• Accountability: Legal consequences for corruption and poor financial conduct
• Skills Deployment: Placement of qualified engineers and financial experts at local level
• Merit-Based Appointments: Administrative posts must be filled on capability, not politics
• Public Oversight: Communities should play a participatory role in monitoring service performance
• Digital Systems: Use of real-time technology to improve financial transparency and detect irregularities early

The data is clear: only 16% of South African municipalities are operating within sound governance frameworks. With 65% in financial distress, urgent reforms are needed and recovery is not impossible. Municipalities such as Cape Town and Midvaal prove that clean governance and reliable service delivery can co-exist. If these practices are adopted broadly, the national trend can shift from decline to renewal.

Local government is where public trust is built—or broken. Without reform, services will continue to deteriorate. But with action, stability and accountability can return.

The future of your beautiful and hopeful country depends on it.