International Lessons and Best Practices on Local Government

Platinum Sponsor: Business Engineering
Gold Sponsor: Ntiyiso Consulting Group

Organised by: Future Cities Africa and The Municipal Edge

Date: 17 April 2026

Topics: Governance Architecture - Devolution - Fiscal Decentralisation - Leadership and Capability - Digital Transformation - Intergovernmental Relations

This webinar brought together audit, governance, policy and research practitioners from South Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe to explore what makes local government work - and what lessons the continent can share as South Africa navigates a pivotal moment in its own local government reform agenda.

The core question

Governance structures exist across the continent. The real question is no longer whether the structures are in place - it is whether they work. This webinar shifted the conversation from structural compliance to outcome-driven governance, asking what distinguishes municipalities that consistently perform from those that do not.

Speaker contributions

Jean-Pierre Rossouw - Chief Audit Executive, George Municipality

JP set the scene by mapping South Africa's local government governance architecture and making the case that strong structures, while necessary, are not sufficient. George Municipality's five consecutive clean audits provided a practical reference point for what is possible.

• Local government globally is under pressure to deliver services sustainably while navigating fiscal constraints, urbanisation and rising expectations. South Africa is no exception.
• The governance architecture - council, executive committees, accounting officer, internal assurance functions - is well designed. The challenge is execution.
• Mission-critical objectives must be clearly identified, linked to risk management, and measured through disciplined performance scorecards. Without this, governance remains theoretical.
• George has achieved full conformance with international internal audit standards, demonstrating that global best practice is achievable in a South African municipal context.
• Internal audit and risk management must have a seat at the table from the start of planning and budgeting cycles - not only at the point of reporting.
• Innovation is non-negotiable. Digital transformation carries real cybersecurity and governance risks, but the answer is proper risk planning - not avoidance.

"The governance is almost like the engine room of municipal performance. If the structure is correct and everything is working as it should, then we can move to achieving the value we want."

Miyelani Holeni - Chief Group Advisor, Ntiyiso Consulting Group

Miyelani broadened the lens from South Africa to the continent, arguing that the core challenge is not capacity alone but capability - and that without the right capabilities, capacity-building efforts will not deliver the outcomes needed.

• The mandate of local government, before anything else, is to deliver services. Every governance structure, every system and every reform must be judged against that single measure.
• Capability is the foundation of the resilience hierarchy: leadership, strategy and service delivery all flow from it. Capacity without capability produces activity, not outcomes.
• Local government is effectively an enterprise within the sphere of government. It requires multidisciplinary capabilities - finance, engineering, transport, economic development, city planning - all working together.
• The tension between political and administrative leadership is minimised when both sides understand their roles. Political leadership provides oversight and long-term direction; administration drives day-to-day execution.
• Municipalities that consistently perform tend to have long-term visions of 20 to 30 years that survive changes in political and administrative leadership.
• South Africa must think carefully about the balance between fiscal consolidation and devolution. Functions are often located at local government level without the financial resources to carry them out effectively.
• Infrastructure development - linked to national programmes and DFIs like DBSA - must be an active agenda within municipalities, not a passive one.

"Before we get lost in the structures, before we get lost in the politics - the essence of local government is to deliver services. If we are not adequately organised to do that, we will continuously fail our communities."

Sylvia Nasambu - Head of Secretariat, Kenya Senate Standing Committee on Devolution and Intergovernmental Relations

Sylvia shared the Kenyan experience of devolution, which began with the promulgation of Kenya's Constitution in 2010 and created 47 semi-autonomous county governments. Now 16 years in, Kenya's devolution is no longer a new experiment - but it is still maturing.

• Kenya's two-tier system transfers powers, functions and resources from national to county governments, with the constitution providing a clear schedule of functions for each level.
• The equitable share - a constitutionally mandated portion of nationally raised revenue - is the largest source of funding for counties. Counties also raise own-source revenue, receive conditional grants, and can take on loans and donor funding.
• Every county must produce a five-year County Integrated Development Plan before any public funds can be appropriated. This plan coordinates development priorities, spatial planning, resource mobilisation and monitoring frameworks.
• Digital platforms - particularly Nairobi's e-Cities platform - have improved revenue collection and service access. Other counties are still catching up.
• Cooperative governance remains contested. Citizens often perceive national government involvement in county affairs as a rollback of devolution gains. The Nairobi intergovernmental partnership is a current example where the framing has been critical to public acceptance.
• Kenya is considering giving accountability agencies like the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission greater prosecutorial powers to strengthen consequence management.

"Our constitution has proven to be resilient, immutable and unamendable. This greatly comforts me - it assures me that the desire for equitable development is safeguarded, and that devolution is here to stay."

Kudzai Chatiza - Director and Senior Researcher, Development Governance Institute, Zimbabwe

Kudzai drew on continental and SADC-level experience to identify common patterns in decentralisation reform across Africa - and where the gaps persist.

• Across the continent, decentralisation is well recognised in law and policy, but implementation is consistently weak across three areas: fiscal autonomy, performance accountability at local level, and the recurring tendency to recentralise powers once devolved.
• Zimbabwe has introduced a constitutional minimum of 5% of national revenue to be transferred to local authorities, defined minimum service delivery standards, and integrated performance management across tiers of government.
• Doing business reforms - simplifying licensing and investment promotion at local level - are an underutilised lever for local economic development.
• The shift that matters most is from local governments that implement national programmes to local governments that are genuinely developmental - shaping their own trajectories.
• City-to-city and local government-to-local government learning networks are an underutilised resource. Moral persuasion for performance between peers can be as powerful as legislative mandates.
• Recentralisation is often justified by poor local government performance. Strengthening accountability from below - through citizens engaging horizontally with their municipalities - is the most durable counter to that trend.

"If we don't address the weak performance accountability of local authorities, some of the persistent recentralisation will continue - and it is usually justified on the basis that local governments are not performing."

Key takeaways for practitioners

1. Move from structural governance to outcome-driven governance. The question is not whether structures exist - it is whether they produce results for citizens.
2. Build capability before capacity. The right skills, qualifications and experience - political and administrative - are prerequisites, not add-ons.
3. Long-term planning of 20 to 30 years, anchored in the IDP and able to survive leadership changes, is what separates consistently performing municipalities from reactive ones.
4. Risk management and internal audit must be integrated from the planning phase, not called in after problems emerge.
5. Fiscal autonomy must match devolved functions. Mandates without resources produce failure - and that failure is then used to justify recentralisation.
6. Digital transformation is urgent and non-negotiable, but it must be accompanied by cybersecurity governance and proper risk planning. Do not build from scratch - adopt best-of-breed systems and adapt them.
7. Public participation is not a procedural requirement - it is the foundation of legitimacy. Kenya's experience shows that when communities understand the numbers, accountability becomes shared.

Moderated by Mr. Zolani Zonyane, The Municipal Edge
Hosted by: Dan Claassen, MD, Future Cities Africa

CPD points available - contact cpd@cigfaro.co.za