Municipalities may change councillors and governing parties through elections, but debts, ageing infrastructure and weak revenue systems remain, often leaving new administrations to inherit the problems of their predecessors.

Writing to the Courier ahead of the November local government elections, Prof Joseph Sekhampu, chief director of the NWU Business School, says municipal failures increasingly place pressure on other parts of the state.

By December 2025, municipalities reportedly owed creditors about R161 billion, while municipal debt to Eskom stood at R110.5 billion.

Endumeni’s Eskom debt was reported at over R500-million despite constant efforts to come to an agreement with the utility.

Sekhampu argues that interventions intended to prevent municipalities from collapsing can also shift the financial burden elsewhere.

The cost of failure does not disappear

He points to municipalities such as Makana, Ditsobotla, Moqhaka and Nelson Mandela Bay, where financial problems, service delivery failures and recovery efforts have persisted through changes in councils and administrations.

National Treasury and Eskom have also had to intervene to prevent financial distress from threatening essential services.

Sekhampu says this creates a “soft budget constraint”, where municipalities can effectively rely on intervention when financial problems become severe.

However, he warns that repeated intervention can make it difficult to hold those responsible for financial failures accountable.

Endumeni has been beset with problems since the 2021 elections with the previous Mayor, Siyabonga Ndlovu, fired after ‘non-performance’ and the current incumbent, Mcebo Mkhize, under fire for corruption charges.

As voters prepare to choose new councils, Sekhampu says elections can remove political leaders, but they cannot automatically repair the institutional weaknesses inherited by their successors.

He warns that South Africa’s system of repeatedly rescuing struggling municipalities may eventually place too much pressure on the institutions providing the rescue.

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