{"id":37058,"date":"2026-06-14T11:01:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T09:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=37058"},"modified":"2026-06-14T11:01:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T09:01:23","slug":"structural-economic-shifts-talent-deficits-fuel-sas-municipal-crisis","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/structural-economic-shifts-talent-deficits-fuel-sas-municipal-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Structural economic shifts, talent deficits fuel SA&#8217;s municipal crisis \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Local government experts warn that the persistent failure of South African (SA) municipalities to deliver basic services like clean water and sanitation points to severe structural flaws, compounded by a lack of local economic viability.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The warning follows a dismal municipal audit report from the Auditor-General, which revealed virtually no improvement in local financial management. Out of 471 government entities audited, a mere 151 managed to achieve clean, unqualified audits. Analysts argue that many rural and small-town municipalities simply lack the local economic activity required to generate revenue and sustainably support basic service delivery.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Professor Joseph Sekhampu from the North-West University Business School suggests that consolidating adjacent municipalities could help pool resources and address critical skills shortages.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;One of the bigger challenges in our municipalities is attracting talented individuals,&#8221; Sekhampu explained. &#8220;If you consolidate two small municipalities, you can then hire a potentially more senior engineer or a more senior accountant, and consolidate expertise around shared challenges. The country has changed; economic activity has moved to bigger cities.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21883,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-37058","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Local government experts warn that the persistent failure of SA municipalities to deliver basic services compounded by a lack of local economic viability","published_date":"2026-06-14 10:42:46","news_description":"Local government experts warn that the persistent failure of SA municipalities to deliver basic services compounded by a lack of local economic viability","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37058","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":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37060,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37058\/revisions\/37060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=37058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}