The Institute of Municipal Engineering of Southern Africa (IMESA) has raised concerns that, despite the latest rounds of consultation and some revisions, the draft White Paper on Local Government has critical gaps. Unless addressed, the flawed document will not achieve its objective to ensure that every South African municipality works, IMESA warns.
The institute notes that since the core delivery foundation for public works is civil engineering, supported by financially sound budgeting and municipal revenue models, municipal engineers should be leading the charge in restoring effective and efficient municipal service delivery.
This has not been the case, however. Although the White Paper review process was initiated in May 2025, IMESA and its members were not invited to participate as panel members in any of the focus areas. Through proactive lobbying, IMESA succeeded in setting up a direct meeting with a key member of the Finance and Infrastructure work stream in December 2025 and then with representatives from the White Paper review panel only in March 2026 – the same month that the final revised White Paper was due for submission to the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA).
IMESA president Geoff Tooley outlines the concerns raised at that meeting: “Our first primary request to the CoGTA panellists was clarification on which expert engineers with senior municipal experience have been involved in the rewriting process, and which parts they had input into. Our foremost observation was the absence of compulsory professional registration for key officials in the White Paper on Local Government, which is imminent for final parliamentary enactment.
For example, in terms of current legislation, the Municipal Systems Act (2000) establishes the role and appointment of municipal managers and senior administrators but does not mandate professional registration, where applicable. Nor does the 2026 White Paper on Local Government.
This is a red flag. Just as no chief financial officer should function without some form of accreditation from a professional body like the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA), no municipal manager should exercise an engineering oversight role without professional registration, which many do at present.
“Ultimately, our sharp decline in municipal service delivery is directly proportional to the reduction in the authority given to City Engineers and the relaxation of the requirement for senior municipal leadership to be professionally registered,” Tooley asserts. “The facts are clear. Where municipal engineers are the driving force of civil infrastructure and have more say in administration, finance, supply chain management and strategy, the positive results are tangible on the ground. We need to ensure that the approved 2026 White Paper on Local Government achieves this, and currently, it does not.”
Tooley says that the critical points raised by IMESA in prior communications and at the 6 March 2026 meeting have not been addressed or included in the latest draft White Paper on Local Government. “The inadequacies of the senior ‘professional’ leadership under whom technical staff members operate remain a concern. The draft White Paper states in Chapter 5 that legal and policy foundations for a professional municipal administration are already in place, but this is not true.
As per IMESA’s comments, there are no legal requirements for senior leadership officials within the municipality to be professionally registered. This is in direct contrast to the requirements prior to the 1998 White Paper, where the Town Clerk, the City Treasurer and the City Engineer were required to be professionally registered. This professional requirement resulted in professional service delivery. This is a fundamental flaw that needs to be addressed.”
A further issue is the lack of transparency around the White Paper’s writing team. “We have repeatedly asked for the names of the engineers with extensive municipal and infrastructure delivery experience who are part of this rewriting process, and this has not been forthcoming,” Tooley states. “We are concerned that there is no one of this description on the main rewriting team. How will this team be able to ensure that the White Paper on Local Government will address the service delivery issues if the main category of person responsible for infrastructure service delivery is not on the writing team?”
