Potholed golden city faces a crisis of accountability - 05 Feb 2010, Business Day
LIivid Johannesburg residents, including the editor of this newspaper, have vented frustration with Johannesburg’s road network, which is particularly badly affected by roadworks and upgrading, as well as potholes (many made worse by increased pressure from diverted traffic as well as January’s many downpours).         What is...

Eskom hikes could lead to neglect - 12 Nov 2009, Business Day
There couldn’t be a worse time for Eskom’s leadership struggle; not only for the country as a whole, but for an increasingly unpopular local government in particular.         The distribution of electricity is critical to local government for numerous reasons. First, it has provided a valuable source...

Apartheid alive in far-flung, marginalised communities - 30 Oct 2009, Business Day
  Local government has faced a gruelling year. Communities have taken to the streets across the country (but most especially in townships in Gauteng, the Western Cape and Mpumalanga) to protest against perceived maladministration, corruption and ineptitude in their local councils.     The national government, led by a vibrant...

Amalgamation will not mend dysfunctional municipalities - 09 Oct 2009, Business Day
  What many have been muttering about in corridors and behind closed doors was put out in the open by Deputy Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Yunus Carrim this week: much of local government is simply not functioning.         The analysis, although frank, is increasingly...

Tshwane false alarm still a timely wake-up for municipalities - 10 Sep 2009, Business Day
Many were shocked when the typically stable City of Tshwane announced it had to renegotiate payment terms with two of its major creditors — Rand Water (owed R64m) and Eskom (R495m). The city blamed the knock-on effects from the economic downturn on defaulting customers. The Gauteng secretary of the African...

Burning issues at the core of community protests - 30 Aug 2009, Sunday Independent

Reading the figures in the flames to find the future of protests - 24 Aug 2009, Business Day
It is uncontroversial to state that this year has seen the worst wave of service delivery protests since democracy. Municipal IQ’s Municipal Hotspots Monitor recorded a peak of 38 protests to end-July — the highest record of major municipal service delivery protests since 2004. Both the number and nature of the...

Urgent messages in the clattering stones of delivery protests - 16 Jul 2009, Business Day
Week-long protests by residents of Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg, over the allocation of housing further heat up an otherwise cold winter plagued by often violent service delivery protests. Protests for the first half of this year already account for 13% of the major service delivery protests since 2004, as recorded...

Looking left and right as SA jumps on BRT bandwagon - 08 Jul 2009, Business Day
One of the few criticisms of SA’s hosting of the recent Confederations Cup was the failure of local government to use almost-completed Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems to ferry soccer fans to venues. But BRTs and public transport are complex issues, primarily because of their considerable expense, and whatever systems...

Whether ANC or DA rules, expect local service protests - 06 May 2009, Business Day
The elections a fortnight ago were highly significant in that they reconfigured the political landscape. But what do they mean for local government? Local government is in the unusual position of already being familiar with its likely minister, Sicelo Shiceka. Of course, provincial MECs for local government are all likely...

Why allegations of Johannesburg’s insolvency are bankrupt - 20 Apr 2009, Business Day
KAREN HEESE, KEVIN ALLAN and PAUL ALLAN         Last week, the Democratic Alliance (DA) alleged that the city of Johannesburg was technically insolvent. Even in the inevitably heated run-up to the elections, the claim was a dramatic one, not least because Johannesburg really did face financial bankruptcy...

Getting the LED out - 27 Mar 2009, Mail & Guardian
Getting the LED out Local Economic Development might just save the country with its innovative initiatives. But only if we get our basic services in order first. By Karen Heese and Kevin Allan   The concept of LED is in poor shape in local government circles. There are champions to...

How municipalities fail SA’s poor in the time of cholera - 03 Feb 2009, Business Day
Few would have imagined that the dreaded disease cholera would ever ravage communities in SA as it did Caribbean countries in the late 19th century, providing the setting for Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s famous novel, Love in the Time of Cholera. But it has, and the tragedy is no less profound....

M&G Municipal Week - 05 Dec 2008, Mail & Guardian

Joburg SA's best city - 17 Oct 2008, IOL
Johannesburg was found to be the most productive place to live, work and invest in, according to data company Municipal IQ. This was according to the company's Municipal Productivity Index (MPI), its economist Karen Heese said on Friday. MPI measures five factors, which reflect the productivity of a municipality relating...

Ask the right questions to prevent further tragedies - 13 Oct 2008, Business Day
Two significant reports were released by the government in recent weeks: Towards a Fifteen-Year Review; and a damning task team report on the investigation of the deaths of 140 Eastern Cape infants during the first three months of this year. The babies’ deaths were attributed to a combination of poor...

Public spending and the goals of the World Cup - 29 Aug 2008, Business Day
Local government used to buzz with the term “unfunded mandate” (especially in relation to provincial functions such as health or housing that local government, especially in cities, started to take on). But perhaps the most serious current example is the 2010 World Cup, where local government is embroiled in an...

Why mayors of SA metros are in premier position - 04 Aug 2008, Business Day
  Duma Nkosi, the executive mayor of the Ekurhuleni metro, was recently replaced by Helen Mekgwe, the speaker, in what is widely understood as a change in politically aligned (African National Congress) ANC leadership in the metro. There is also speculation that the regional ANC had grown tired of Nkosi’s...

Service delivery failures and xenophobic attacks - 20 May 2008, Business Day
An orgy of xenophobic violence erupted in Alexandra just over a week ago, spreading to many parts of Gauteng. The incidents bear similarities to municipal service delivery protests, which Municipal IQ monitors. With analysts and politicians grasping for answers to the cause of the recent violence, we ask this: is there...

Going down in the flood of rate reforms for Joburg - 07 Apr 2008, Business Day
The City of Johannesburg has released its rates policy and assessment rates, as well as tariffs for utility charges for the 2008/09 tax year over the last fortnight, raising some concern, especially in the media, of the prospect of shock increases in rates and user charges for Johannesburg residents. In...

What ANC shake-up means for SA’s city bosses - 29 Jan 2008, Business Day
LOCAL government in SA is incongruous. On the one hand, it is empowered by the constitution as an autonomous sphere (a devolution of power intended to bring municipalities closer to communities). On the other, there is a de facto centralisation of leadership, through the selection of political representatives at a...

Local government after Polokwane - 13 Dec 2007, Business Day
While South Africa holds its breath to see what the outcomes of the ANC’s December Conference, to be held in Polokwane, yield in terms of leadership of not only the ANC, but also the South African government, local government needs to continue with its day-to-day running. Where then do the...

Getting a gauge on which municipalities work - 23 Oct 2007, Business Day
Kevin Allan and Karen Heese CITIES in industrialised countries have ranked themselves against each other, in much the same way that business schools do, for many years. A strong motivator for this has been the provision of a tool for businesses and the very wealthy wanting to weigh up different...

Why Durban can't always be tops - 21 Oct 2007, Sunday Tribune
eThekwini is the darling of local government finance. Well managed, with historically the best books in the business, the city faces no difficulties in securing loans from the financial services sector, and at extremely competitive rates. Witness, for instance, the recent R2.9 billion loan granted by the Development Bank of...

Why Cape Town is the most productive South African City - 21 Oct 2007, Sunday Argus
Kevin Allan and Karen Heese   On the 17th October, Municipal IQ, at its launch in Johannesburg, released rankings on its Municipal Productivity Index (MPI)™, ranking Cape Town as South Africa’s most productive city.   The MPI™ calculates productivity by measuring five factors: the extent of poverty in a municipality...