Ramaphosa: Municipalities Must Learn from DA-Led Cities

Ramaphosa Urges Municipalities to Learn from DA-Led Metros

President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on municipalities across South Africa to learn from best practices in Democratic Alliance (DA)-led cities such as Cape Town and Stellenbosch.

Speaking on municipal performance, Ramaphosa said there is “nothing wrong with competition” and that municipalities must strive to adopt working models that improve governance and service delivery.

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“We need to ask ourselves what it is that they are doing that is better than what we are doing. And there’s nothing wrong with us saying we want to go and see what Cape Town is doing, we want to go and see what Stellenbosch is doing,” he said.

The president expressed concern about declining performance in some municipalities, noting that audit outcomes show repeated failures in financial reporting. According to him, several municipal financial statements are not prepared at council level, are outsourced, and often returned with errors.

He stressed the urgent need to employ capable professionals who understand accounting and finance, saying South Africa is not short of skilled individuals.

Ramaphosa added that municipalities must “move up the ladder of being good at what we do” and cannot remain stagnant or regress further.

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The president’s remarks underscore the importance of accountability, capacity-building, and learning from well-performing municipalities to restore service delivery and public trust.