Budget outlines shift from oversight to ‘structural intervention’ to tackle municipal …

Amid growing dissatisfaction with the performance of many of the country’s 257 municipalities, 162 of which are categorised as being in financial distress, the National Treasury has outlined what it describes as a fundamental shift in the subnational fiscal architecture that moves from oversight to active structural intervention. “At the municipal level, this shift involves changes to legislation, governance arrangements and technological intervention,” the Budget Review states, indicating that the proposed municipal reforms are rooted in the revised White Paper on Local Government.