Western Cape has 15 out of the 20 best-performing municipalities
A recent study shows South Africa's best and worst municipalities.
A bird's eye view of the City of Cape Town. Picture: SkyPixels/Wikimedia Commons
John Perlman speaks with Pranish Desai, Senior Data Analyst for the Governance Insights & Analytics Programme at Good Governance Africa (GGA).
Listen to the interview in the audio below.
The GGA recently released the Governance Performance Index (GPI) for 2024, which reveals that the Swartland municipality, based in Malmesbury in the Western Cape, is the best in the country.
While the Joe Morolong municipality in the Northern Cape is pegged as the worst.
“The Western Cape does do better on indexes like this, but quite a lot of that is a function of history.”
- Pranish Desai, Senior Data Analyst of the Governance Insights & Analytics Programme at GGA
“It's important that political parties do not discount the role that history plays.”
- Pranish Desai, Senior Data Analyst of the Governance Insights & Analytics Programme at GGA
In 10 of these 20 municipalities, no single party had an outright majority.
Desai says while not all coalitions work well, having a formal coalition agreement does make these arrangements more stable.
The municipalities are assessed based on publicly available records, including reports by the Auditor-General, the National Treasury, and the Department of Water and Sanitation.
Several categories are evaluated, of which service delivery holds the most weight.
Other categories include: administration and governance; economic development; leadership and management; and planning, monitoring and evaluation.
Desai adds that municipalities are also judged on the basis of their constitutional mandate.
Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the interview.