South Africa must urgently adopt a minimum requirement of a Grade 12 (Matric) certificate for all councillors.
- A crisis demanding urgent action ahead of 2026 local elections.
- Councillors lack basic literacy despite managing budgets and policies, with no minimum education required by law.
- Ignoring councillor illiteracy in local government reforms risks deepening service delivery failures across South Africa.
As South Africa approaches its local government elections in 2026, a grave crisis looms over the foundation of our democracy, according to Dr Nonhlanhla Ngcobo, a lecturer in the Faculty of Law at North-West University.
The overwhelming majority of our councillors lack basic literacy skills, a fact publicly confirmed by the minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), who revealed that over 300 councillors in KwaZulu-Natal alone are illiterate. This alarming reality is a direct threat to effective governance and service delivery across municipalities nationwide.
Despite the critical role that local government plays as the constitutional vehicle for community development and public service, this literacy crisis remains unaddressed in the ongoing review of the 1998 White Paper on Local Government. Municipalities continue to suffer from administrative mismanagement, service delivery backlogs, infrastructure decay, and financial failures; problems that cannot be fully understood or resolved without confronting the impact of councillor illiteracy.
“Councillors bear the responsibility of making complex decisions involving policy formulation, budget analysis, and oversight of municipal officials, tasks that require fundamental reading, writing, and comprehension abilities. The absence of minimum educational qualifications for councillors undermines the capacity of local government and jeopardises the ambitious reforms proposed by the White Paper review,” says Dr Ngcobo.
International best practices from countries such as the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, and Australia demonstrate that establishing clear educational standards for local government officeholders leads to more effective governance, ethical leadership, and improved service delivery. “South Africa must urgently adopt a minimum requirement of a Grade 12 (Matric) certificate for all councillors to equip them with the essential skills for leadership and administration,” she adds.
This call is supported by empirical research conducted by Dr Ngcobo in a 2023 PhD study, titled: “The duty of municipal councillors to realise section 24 of the Constitution” which demonstrates that illiteracy significantly limits councillors’ ability to fulfil their legal and moral duties.
With national elections following in 2029, the time to act is now. South Africa stands at a crossroads. Failure to address the literacy crisis among councillors will perpetuate governance failures and deepen the hardships faced by millions of communities. The government, political parties, and citizens must unite to ensure council leadership is competent, accountable, and capable of driving real change for all South Africans.
Dr Ngcobo can be contacted at 072 478 5392 and [email protected].
Dr Ngcobo is a Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, North-West University. She is a published scholar in Constitutional Law, South African Local Government Law, and Environmental Law. She has also contributed to various research-intense projects, including forming part of the Township Economic Development Task Team, which looked at the extent to which current municipal legal framework enables and/or impedes the development of township economies. This project was headed by the South African Research Chair in Cities, Law and Environmental Sustainability (CLES) and South African Cities Network (SACN).
She has presented numerous papers at national and international conferences. Dr Ngcobo also serves as the Treasurer of the Environmental Law Association of South Africa and as a Research Fellow at CLES. Her research interests lie at the intersection of law, urban development, and the influence of politics.