Fabulous reads: Challenges, triumphs of the newly-run uMngeni Municipality

Saving South Africa: Lessons from the uMngeni Municipality Success Story, Chris Pappas and Sandile Mnikathi, Pan Macmillan, ISBN: 9781770109186

‘Many of us are looking for hope. We want to believe that tomorrow will be better than today. A municipality is an important partner to ensure that people feel hopeful. There are many problems, and the system is designed to fail more than succeed. But we have an obligation to try to get it right – to maintain hope.’ – Sandile Mnikathi, uMngeni Deputy Mayor

The Democratic Alliance won control of the uMngeni Municipality in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands after the local government elections in 2021.

As the only DA-run municipality in KZN, uMngeni provides a template for how local government could work in a post-ANC South Africa.

Written by two leaders at the very heart of the project, Saving South Africa reveals the challenges, triumphs and disasters the new administration has encountered along the way.

It is an eye-opening exposé of how cadre deployment has helped to bring the country to its knees. It is a story of incompetent officials, political spies, gunwielding tenderpreneurs, petty theft and grand larceny.

And yet, as we follow the authors on their journey, there is always hope for a better future as the corrupt layers of local governance are gradually stripped away, revealing the responsive and caring civil service envisioned by the South African Constitution.