<\/p>\n
Delivering the keynote address at the 2026 National Local Economic Development Summit, on Wednesday, Ramaphosa said the country\u2019s investment drive will only translate into jobs if towns and cities become reliable platforms for business expansion. He pointed to the recent SA Investment Conference, which secured $54 billion in investment pledges, noting that investment happens in \u201cmetros, cities, towns and villages\u201d, not in national government precincts.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ramaphosa said SA\u2019s entrepreneurial sector is expanding, but still faces barriers including limited finance, skills gaps, bureaucracy and weak integration into larger value chains. He warned that failures inside local government continue to choke opportunity, citing Auditor-General findings of weak financial management, poor revenue collection, infrastructure neglect, irregular expenditure and weak consequence management.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThese challenges translate into unreliable electricity, water insecurity, poor roads and unsafe trading environments,\u201d he said, adding that \u201cwithout fixing governance, we cannot fix service delivery\u201d.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He outlined four priority actions. First, municipalities must unblock infrastructure constraints by focusing on energy security, water, roads and rail, and prioritising maintenance. Ramaphosa said Treasury guidelines require municipalities to budget 8% of the carrying value of assets for maintenance, yet many budget less than 1%.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Second, he urged municipalities to improve the ease of doing business by cutting licensing and approval delays, expanding e-registration and creating regulatory certainty, as the mational government finalises the Business Licensing Bill and rolls out a red tape reduction framework.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Third, Ramaphosa said local economic development must shift from isolated projects to an outcomes-based operating system driven by reliable services, predictable maintenance and disciplined supplier payments. He announced plans to formalise the District Development Model \u201cOne Plans\u201d into binding economic transformation compacts, supported by targeted area compacts for key nodes and corridors.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Finally, he called for professionalising municipalities through merit-based appointments, ethical standards and stronger partnerships with state-owned entities, development finance institutions and the private sector to turn plans into bankable projects. \u201cOur task is to unleash the potential of entrepreneurs and build an inclusive economy that creates opportunities for all,\u201d Ramaphosa said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":32089,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,44],"class_list":["post-32088","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"South Africa's (SA) President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on the country's municipalities to treat local government as the \u201cengine room\u201d of economic growth, urging urgent action to fix failing services, reduce red tape and build an \u201coperating system of growth\u201d that helps small businesses thrive.","published_date":"","news_description":"South Africa's (SA) President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on the country's municipalities to treat local government as the \u201cengine room\u201d of economic growth, urging urgent action to fix failing services, reduce red tape and build an \u201coperating system of growth\u201d that helps small businesses thrive.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32119,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32088\/revisions\/32119"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=32088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}