Kouga Municipality on Leadership, Accountability, and the Power of Digital Innovation
Kouga Municipality on Leadership, Accountability, and the Power of Digital Innovation
Uncover Kouga's winning strategies in governance and finance, explore innovative service delivery across coastal and rural areas, and look ahead to Kouga's first AI initiatives for a smarter, more resilient future.
Download This Episode's MP3 File
The file will open in a new window. Click down arrow to download the file.
Where to subscribe: Apple Podcast | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Youtube | RSS
Presented by Business Engineering
Guest:
Dawie de Jager, Deputy Municipal Manager, Kouga Local Municipality
Episode Focus:
How Kouga went from financial distress in 2016 to becoming the best-performing municipality in the Eastern Cape (2025 SAPOA | Ratings Africa Awards) and achieving repeated clean audits.
Key Takeaways:
- Turnaround Foundation (2016 onwards)
- Clean, ethical governance and strict financial discipline were non-negotiable
- Appointed competent, ethical people despite salary-cap challenges
- Strong consequence management for fraud and unethical behaviour
- Excellent CFOs enforced compliance with the MFMA led to Kouga's first clean audit and continuous improvement
- Performance Management & Oversight
- Cascaded performance agreements from top to bottom
- Introduced Ignite system with monthly tracking and live dashboards
- Strong political-administrative alignment and council oversight
- Infrastructure & Visible Results
- Fixed dilapidated bulk water & wastewater treatment works (e.g., state-of-the-art upgrades at KwaNomzamo)
- Massive road resealing program (targeting 71% of roads) + new gravel-to-tar projects
- Innovation in Service Delivery
- Smart technology on suction tankers, smart metering pilots, upgraded wastewater plants
- Central incident management system: call centre - job dispatch - photo proof - SMS notification - customer rates the service
- Ward-based WhatsApp groups, multilingual communication, online building-plan submissions
- Digital Transformation (Collaborator & Beyond)
- Collaborator platform streamlined document management, policy reviews, council resolutions, and agenda preparation
- PowerBI service-delivery dashboards give real-time ward-level insights
- Early AI exploration: internal search on documents, future WhatsApp AI assistant (with caution)
- Future Outlook
- Balancing cutting-edge tech with the human touch South Africans still value
- Embracing AI and smart tools proactively 'so we are not left behind'
Kouga's success recipe = ethical leadership + financial discipline + competent people + smart digital systems that make governance and service delivery transparent, fast, and accountable. A standout example for local government in South Africa.
Download This Episode's MP3 File
The file will open in a new window. Click down arrow to download the file.
Where to subscribe: Apple Podcast | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Youtube | RSS