38 Municipalities in Crisis: The Legacy of Apartheid Spatial Planning Haunts South Africa

South Africa's local government is in deep trouble. Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa told Parliament that 38 municipalities are now classified as distressed, a number that speaks to the enduring structural damage of apartheid-era planning and the ongoing failure to deliver basic services to Black communities.

Hlabisa confirmed that as of August, these municipalities were receiving structured support through the Municipal Performance Turnaround Strategy (MPTAS) and related section 154 support measures. He identified governance, financial, institutional, and service delivery challenges as the core problems, but he stopped short of naming the affected municipalities.

What does it mean for a municipality to be distressed?

Under South African law, the Constitution requires national and provincial governments to support municipalities in managing their own affairs. When a municipality cannot fulfil its executive obligations, a provincial executive can intervene. Hlabisa explained that interventions vary depending on the severity of the failure.

“Where municipal failures are severe and provincial support measures are insufficient, interventions under section 139 of the Constitution may be instituted by the relevant provincial executive,” Hlabisa said.

This is not abstract legal language. For residents in distressed municipalities, it means unreliable water supply, failing sewage systems, potholed roads, and dysfunctional billing. It means the promise of a dignified life, made in 1994, remains unfulfilled.

Which municipalities are under section 139 interventions?

Hlabisa reported that 37 municipalities are currently under section 139 interventions. The breakdown is telling:

• Western Cape: 4 (Beaufort West, Kannaland, Garden Route, Theewaterskloof)
• KwaZulu-Natal: 1 (Impendle)
• Gauteng: 2 (Emfuleni, Merafong)
• Free State: 8 (including Mangaung)
• Eastern Cape: 5
• Limpopo: 1
• Mpumalanga: 5
• North West: 8
• Northern Cape: 3

The concentration of distressed municipalities in provinces like the Free State, North West, and Eastern Cape is no accident. These are regions where apartheid's Bantustan policies deliberately underdeveloped infrastructure and created fragmented, unviable administrative units. The current crisis is the direct inheritance of that racist spatial engineering.

Is there any progress in fixing these municipalities?

Hlabisa offered a mixed picture. Seven of the 38 distressed municipalities improved their audit outcomes in the 2024/25 cycle, while 28 remained unchanged and two regressed. Thirty-five municipalities have adopted Municipal Support and Improvement Plans or Financial Recovery Plans.

Some municipalities, like Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality, have reported revenue gains from infrastructure and metering interventions. But Hlabisa was candid about the limits of progress.

“Certain municipalities have demonstrated improvements in governance stability, implementation of recovery plans and municipal operations. However, the Department recognises that progress remains uneven,” he said.

Uneven is a polite word. The reality is that many municipalities still face adverse audit outcomes, high debt levels, and difficulty complying with debt-relief conditions. The department says it will keep monitoring with provincial governments and National Treasury, using constitutional and legal mechanisms where municipalities fail to improve.

What about corruption in senior municipal appointments?

The crisis extends beyond service delivery. Hlabisa revealed that 25 municipalities reported non-compliant senior management appointments. During the 2024/25 and 2025/26 financial years, there were 35 such appointments. Of these, 34 were addressed through corrective measures, and one was declared invalid and set aside by a court.

This is the rot that undermines public trust. When municipalities appoint unqualified or politically connected individuals to senior posts, they are not just breaking the law. They are betraying the communities they are supposed to serve.

Why should South Africans care about municipal distress?

Because local government is the level of the state closest to the people. It is where the daily struggle for water, electricity, and sanitation is won or lost. When 38 municipalities are distressed, it is not a bureaucratic statistic. It is a national crisis that hits Black working-class communities hardest.

The Rainbow Report calls on the government to move beyond monitoring and support plans. We need a radical reorganisation of local government that confronts the apartheid spatial legacy head-on. We need investment in infrastructure, not just audits. We need accountability, not just corrective measures.

The Constitution promised a better life for all. For millions of South Africans living in distressed municipalities, that promise is still being broken. The question is whether the government has the political will to fix it.