Several Western Cape municipalities have been deemed South Africa’s best by an independent research institute.
In its latest Governance Performance Index (GPI) – South Africa 2024 report, independent research institute Good Governance Africa’s methodology includes data from the 2022 Census and the Department of Water and Sanitation’s relaunched Blue Drop, Green Drop and No Drop reports, among other resources.
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It scores municipalities according to the following categories:
- Administration and Governance
- Leadership and Management
- Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation
- Service Delivery
- Economic Development for metros
According to the 2024 GPI, Swartland Local Municipality is the best-performing municipality in the country, followed by Drakenstein Local Municipality and Saldanha Bay Local Municipality.
As per the report, each of these municipalities also topped their respective municipal sub-classification ranking, with Swartland ranking first among Category B3 municipalities (small towns), Drakenstein topping the rank of Category B1 municipalities (secondary cities) and Saldanha Bay performing best among Category B2 municipalities (large towns).
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Anton Bredell, Western Cape minister of local government, environmental affairs and development planning, says the report proves that Western Cape municipalities are ‘far the best-performing municipalities in the country’.
‘This independent assessment reflects many years of hard work to build strong systems and to ensure qualified, capable, and ethical people are appointed in our municipalities,’ he adds.
‘It is also [a] testament to the important support and oversight role the provincial Department of Local Government is playing to ensure our local governments stay on the straight and narrow.’
These are some of the other highlights of the report:
- Cape Town was recognised as the best-performing metro in South Africa thanks to its level of service delivery.
- The top four district municipalities in South Africa, ranked from the top in the category with no Water Service Authority, are Cape Winelands, West Coast, Garden Route and Overberg.
- The three best local municipalities in South Africa are all from the Western Cape, including Swartland, Drakenstein and Saldanha Bay
‘This year, we have 15 municipalities under the top 20 South African municipalities,’ says Bredell.
‘This is a clear indication that the Western Cape Government is doing something right, and through hard work and dedication, we were also able to improve over the last couple of years.’
He also noted that the report reflects the Auditor General’s audit outcomes of Western Cape municipalities, which found that 27 out of 30 municipalities could produce clean audits in the most recent audit cycle.
‘Good financial management is cumbersome and hard work, but there is a direct relationship between audit outcomes, as measured by the Auditor General, and service delivery outcomes, which is the category with the highest weight attached in the GGA’s performance calculations.’
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Picture: Swartland Municipality / Facebook