MUSA JACK: Strengthening municipal capability — a critical path to improved service delivery

SA municipalities face systemic challenges that fundamentally impair their ability to deliver essential services to communities. At the core of these challenges lies a complex web of issues: chronic understaffing in technical positions; inadequate technical skills and leadership; inadequate financial management systems; deteriorating infrastructure maintenance; an over-regulated municipal environment; ineffective revenue collection mechanisms; and inability of indigent households to pay for services.

Many municipalities rely heavily on government grants, with some depending on these subsidies for up to 80% of their income, creating an unsustainable financial model that perpetuates service delivery failures. As President Cyril Ramaphosa highlighted in his 2025 state of the nation address, these challenges have led to widespread infrastructure deterioration, from unmaintained roads to disrupted water and electricity supply.

In industrial and mining regions this municipal dysfunction has led to a problematic pattern. Private sector companies face pressure to ensure operational continuity and maintain their social licence to operate. Often communities protest at the gates of mines as they do not have confidence in the municipalities’ ability to address their service delivery concerns. This often results in mines having to step in to provide basic services, an arrangement that is not sustainable as mines are not set up to be pseudo-municipalities.

It also creates an undesired dependency cycle. Municipalities, relieved of their core responsibilities, further deteriorate in their capability to deliver services independently. This intervention model, though well intentioned, ultimately undermines the institutional strength of local government and creates unsustainable expectations of private sector support.

Notwithstanding all of this, the need and significance of partnerships and collaborations between government institutions and private businesses cannot be overemphasised. These allow for resource mobilisation, knowledge sharing and risk mitigation, and promote the innovation required to build thriving communities.

It is for this reason that Anglo American, through a partnership with the department of co-operative governance, has initiated the Municipal Capability & Partnership Programme (MCPP), an initiative aimed at collaborating with eight partner municipalities to strengthen institutional and technical capacity and capability for improved service delivery.

The MCPP model emphasises working with municipal teams in priority focus areas of water services, infrastructure asset management, strategic planning and growth management, as opposed to working on behalf of relevant teams.

Some of the positive shifts that can be noted include:

• An improvement in the ability of the Blouberg local municipality in Limpopo to implement capital projects. Since collaboration with the MCPP, Blouberg can now complete projects on schedule and within allocated budget. This achievement resulted in the municipality securing an additional R10m in municipal infrastructure grant funding for 2023/24.
• In Mogalakwena local municipality collaboration with the water department team around data management and detection and fixing water leaks has seen a reduction of water losses from 57% in 2022 to 51% in 2024. 
• MCPP collaboration with the Gamagara and Tsantsabane municipalities in the Northern Cape has facilitated the establishment of a mine-municipal compact, a vehicle that has galvanised stakeholders from the local, provincial and national spheres of government together with the mining industry and renewable energy producers to work together in preparing for a post mining future. This has been achieved through the identification of economic diversification opportunities that will ensuring protection of economic resilience of the Gamagara-Tsantsabane mining corridor after most mines close.

What makes this partnership model particularly effective is its scalability and sustainability. The programme is anchored on Anglo’s collaborative regional development initiative, which is designed to foster sustainable economic and social development across the company’s operating regions. Now implemented across eight municipalities in Limpopo, the Northern Cape and North West, the MCPP demonstrates how structured collaboration between corporate entities, government departments and local authorities can create lasting change.

The programme brings together diverse stakeholders, including the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research, SA Local Government Association, Minerals Council SA and various sector departments, creating a comprehensive support network for municipal development. This multistakeholder approach ensures that improvements in municipal capability are supported by both technical expertise and the institutional frameworks necessary for long-term success.

This partnership-driven approach to municipal capability building represents a viable path for SA’s local government challenges. By focusing on developing internal capacity rather than providing external solutions, it offers municipalities a way to fulfil their mandate independently and sustainably.

As the country grapples with the imperative of preparing for a just energy transition while addressing basic service delivery challenges, this model provides a practical framework for creating resilient local government institutions capable of meeting community needs well into the future.

• Jack is programme manager for MCPP at Anglo American.