Municipality system to be overhauled

The government is planning to review the district municipality system and introduce a new model to allow small municipalities to share scarce skills.

Revealing this yesterday, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Pravin Gordhan said yesterday that the review would be undertaken over the next two years to address the lack of technical skills in small municipalities.

These municipalities do not have the financial muscle to afford scarce skills and this compromises the integrity of internal systems, ultimately, service delivery.

"Many of our districts will have six to eight municipalities under their umbrella and place high-level and more qualified skills at a district level and use a shared service model so every little municipality does not have to have a chartered accountant," he said at the launch of the FNB Academy on Service Excellence.