DA plans to allow private-sector firms to provide municipal services

The DA wants private-sector companies to take the lead in providing basic municipal services such as water and electricity as local government entities increasingly struggle to deliver them amid crumbling infrastructure and other problems.

The party says that if it governs more municipalities after the local government elections on November 4, it will ensure electricity is bought from and supplied by independent power producers to relieve pressure on public entities such as Eskom and Johannesburg’s City Power.

These are some of the proposals in the DA’s 2026 local government elections manifesto, titled “Getting South Africa working for all”, which was unveiled at a packed rally in Johannesburg’s Mary Fitzgerald Square on Saturday.

Eskom has recently recovered from decades of almost daily load-shedding and City Power has been prone to ongoing power supply failures.

The DA’s six-pillar blueprint places the increased role of private-sector investment and expertise in water, electricity supply, municipal health infrastructure and cleaning up towns and cities at the heart of its promises to the electorate.

The efficient provision of basic services such as water and electricity has become a contentious issue ahead of November’s local government elections as metros such as Johannesburg, Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay struggle to deliver them, with residents often experiencing water outages for days.

The DA says its plan to involve the private sector will be rolled out to all municipalities it governs after the municipal polls.

At this stage, we need all hands on deck to be able to turn around many municipalities

—  — Dr Harlan Cloete, local governance and public leadership expert

The party says it wants to incentivise established private-sector companies with solid delivery records and expertise to invest in bulk-water, electricity and waste-removal infrastructure. It says this will, among other positive outcomes, eliminate the “water-tanker mafia”.

“The DA will also implement competitive tendering for services such as water by giving private suppliers the opportunity to tender for contracts to supply the municipality.

“This will decimate the ‘water-tanker mafia’ and secure reliable water in residents’ taps. With electricity, DA governments will purchase power from private power producers, enabling the municipality to focus on maintaining and upgrading the power network,” said DA federal council chair and national campaign manager Ashor Sarupen.

Sarupen argued that the proposals did not amount to privatising public services, saying that while private entities would assist in delivering services such as water, electricity and waste removal, policy and tariff decision-making would remain the domain of municipal councils.

“Our plan does not amount to privatising essential public services,” he said. “Municipalities will retain all vital levers of control and oversight, including policy, tariff-setting and service standards. Private entities will simply provide their specialised expertise and capital resources. All contracts will be strictly transparent and competitively sourced. If a company fails to meet its delivery targets, it will face penalties.”

The DA said it would also push for legislative changes to ensure revenue generated from water and electricity bills was ring-fenced and strictly spent on the relevant infrastructure.

“The revenue a municipality generates by selling electricity and water must be reinvested in maintaining and upgrading electricity and water infrastructure. When residents pay for electricity and water, that revenue must keep the lights on and water running. It must not cross-subsidise operating costs such as mayoral staff, fancy cars, business-class travel and catering.”

Sarupen said the DA regarded public entities such as Johannesburg Water and City Power as “duplications” of services municipalities were created to render in the first place.

“Joburg created these municipal companies under the illusion they would improve governance and efficiency, as well as create ‘competition’ for service delivery. None of that happened.

“They simply became further examples of failed cadre-filled entities while duplicating staffing and operational costs within the municipality itself. The DA will end these cost duplications wherever we govern.”

Harlan Cloete, a local governance and public leadership research fellow at the University of the Free State, said that, while the DA “privatisation” plan was likely to alarm labour unions, it was high time for there to be “all hands on deck” when it came to municipalities, given the manifold crises at local government level.

“At this stage, we need all hands on deck to be able to turn around many municipalities. I think it all boils down to the model we [adopt]. But public-private partnerships are nothing new,” said Cloete.

He said municipalities had mechanisms in place, such as development agencies, to ensure municipal rates and taxes did not skyrocket to the detriment of residents, even if profit-oriented private players entered the picture.

“I don’t think [rates and taxes will soar] because we have development agencies … to protect the idea of public value," Cloete said. “I think at this point we need a pragmatic approach to restore confidence in local government. Brand local government is in serious trouble, as it has become synonymous with inefficacy, ineffectiveness and low confidence levels.

“We need to restore local government, and this is vitally important because it should bring hope to locals. So at this stage we need a partnership model … we cannot leave all the thinking to local government alone. [Municipalities] must partner with business, academia and communities."

Turning to the fight against crime, Sarupen said the DA would push for the devolution of full policing powers to all the metros it governs after the elections — not just the City of Cape Town, where it currently has an outright majority.

The party says it wants all metro municipalities to be allocated more intelligence-gathering powers.

“By devolving powers, alongside an adequate budget, to competent governments, we can reduce pressure on the SAPS and bring law-enforcement authorities closer to the communities they serve.

“To make local policing effective, the DA will push for municipalities to receive greater investigative and intelligence-gathering powers.”

“By allowing greater investigative powers, municipal police forces will be better equipped to investigate crimes initiated by municipal law enforcement and involving municipal property. Such powers would include those for gathering evidence and witness statements, conducting forensic analysis where necessary, and working closely and directly with the National Prosecuting Authority to prepare, manage and follow up on criminal cases.”

The party also plans to assess the skills and qualifications of all the executive managers in the metros it governs after the elections to weed out those who were not employed on the basis of merit or were hired through political connections.

It also wants all municipal managers and other senior managers to be held strictly accountable for poor audit outcomes, saying current contractual provisions in performance agreements about accountability for financial mismanagement are not being enforced in practice.

“Recently, legislation was introduced to hold municipal managers personally liable for financial mismanagement. However, it has only been utilised once,” Sarupen said.