Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Velenkosini Hlabisa
SCORE: B
In 2024,Velenkosini Hlabisa quickly brought both structure and order to South Africa’s most dysfunctional tier of government, reading them the riot act over unpaid Eskom and water board debts.
In 2025, the minister continued his progress with the department by first extending community work programme contracts for older workers in February, reversing an earlier decision to terminate the contracts of workers aged 55 and over.
In February, Hlabisa also engaged with traditional leaders including the Khoi-San communities to address their concerns and improve rural and cultural governance. Under his leadership, the department also launched a formal review of the 1998 White Paper on local government policy. This was meant to address persistent issues such as service-delivery failures, fiscal mismanagement and governance breakdowns in many municipalities.
The department also maintained an unqualified audit opinion for 2024/25, marking a continued level of financial and administrative accountability under constrained resources.
Despite the efforts of Hlabisa since taking over the department and having rolled out turnaround plans for distressed municipalities, municipal dysfunction remains widespread.
According to municipal audit outcomes for 2023/2024, only 41 out of 257 municipalities achieved clean audits. Under Hlabisa’s leadership, Cogta is working hard to address structural weaknesses in local government while responding to immediate crises.