New book highlights South Africa’s local government success stories

South Africa’s local government story is often told through the language of failure, broken infrastructure, financial crises, poor service delivery and municipalities struggling to keep the lights on.

However, Dr Harlan Cloete, a research fellow at the University of the Free State’s Centre for Gender in Africa Studies, believes there is another story worth telling.

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Behind the headlines about dysfunctional municipalities are councillors, officials, community leaders and businesses quietly finding ways to make local government work.

It is these stories that form the foundation of Cloete’s new book, 101 Local Governance Lessons: From the Great Governance ZA Podcast, launched at the Nedbank Head Office in Sandton on September 2. The book draws on more than four years of conversations recorded for Cloete’s Great Governance ZA podcast.

The podcast has featured about 115 guests, ranging from politicians and municipal managers to community activists, business leaders and other people working at the coalface of local government.

According to Cloete, the project started with a simple question: why do some municipalities appear to succeed while others facing similar challenges struggle? “I wanted to find out more. How did they get it right? How are you an island of excellence in a sea of mediocrity?” he asked.

What began as curiosity during the Covid-19 pandemic eventually became a research and storytelling project that gave Cloete access to people with very different experiences of governance.

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“When I had about 115 episodes, I thought maybe I should turn these episodes into a book. It was a tedious process putting it together,” Cloete said. Rather than producing another book focused exclusively on what is going wrong, Cloete organises the lessons around three key groups: politicians, communities and business.

“I would ask people why you do what you do. Their answers, experiences and approaches were then grouped into themes and developed into individual chapters containing key lessons and takeaways for readers,” he explained.

At the heart of the book is Cloete’s belief that South Africa’s local government crisis is not simply a question of resources or policy.

“I don’t think we have a lack of resources, nor do we have a lack of policies. We’re not managing managers in municipalities. We have a management problem. We have a management problem that spills over to the political problem because we also have a political problem that spills over to the administration, and inevitably that spills over to communities,” he said.

He described local government as a complex system in which politics, administration and communities are interconnected. “It’s like a three-legged stool. If one leg is broken, the entire system collapses,” he said.

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For councillors, municipal managers and political leaders, Cloete believes one of the most important lessons is to remain connected to the reason they entered public service in the first place.

“You should be linked to your why. Why are you in that position? Why did you get into politics? Why did you get into administration? Public office should be understood as a responsibility to society rather than simply a job.

“There can be no higher calling than being a public servant, not an official, a servant. You work for the greater good of society. The book contains examples of people who serve their communities because they believe in the value of public service rather than because of financial rewards.”

With South Africa heading towards local government elections in November, Cloete hopes the book can provide newly elected councillors with practical examples of ethical and effective leadership.

“There are plenty of examples of councillors who are leading ethically. If you’re a community member, I hope you look at your councillor with new eyes because the thing about knowledge, once you know, you can’t unknow,” Cloete said.

“I’m on a mission to change the narrative that local government is all doom and gloom. There are great stories out there, and there are beautiful people out there. South Africans are good people at heart.”

101 Local Governance Lessons: From the Great Governance ZA Podcast is published by the University of Johannesburg Press and is available online. Cloete said efforts are also being made to get the book into mainstream bookshops.

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