MUNICIPAL GOVERNANCE, KING V RAISES THE BAR FOR ETHICAL SERVICE DELIVERY

By: Adv. Anastasia Mashobane | CEO of Mashobane Advisory Services

With municipal elections scheduled for 4 November 2026, King V’s application to municipalities is a timely warning: councils must move beyond box-ticking and prove, through ethical leadership, consequence management and transparent reporting, that governance is improving service delivery and rebuilding public trust.

By Adv. Anastasia Mashobane

South Africa’s municipalities are not simply administrative structures; they are the frontline test of public trust and democratic credibility. They determine whether communities receive basic services, whether infrastructure is maintained and whether businesses can invest with confidence. When municipal governance fails, the impact is immediate: interrupted services, collapsing infrastructure, weakened investor confidence and communities that increasingly question the value of public institutions.

The King V Guidance Note on the Application of King V issued by the Institute of Directors South Africa to municipalities should therefore be read as more than another governance document. It is a direct challenge to municipal leaders to stop treating governance as box-ticking and to start treating it as a discipline of ethical leadership, consequence management and measurable public value. King V continues South Africa’s outcomes-based approach to governance. Its principles require governing bodies to lead ethically and effectively, oversee strategy, risk, compliance, technology, assurance and stakeholder relationships, and explain how governance practices achieve ethical culture, sustainable performance, conformance and legitimacy.

The real shift required is from defensive compliance to accountable governance. Municipalities already operate within a demanding framework: section 152 of the Constitution, the Municipal Structures Act 117 of 1998, the Municipal Systems Act 32 of 2000, the Municipal Finance Management Act 56 of 2003 and related regulations. King V does not replace these laws; it exposes whether municipal leadership is using them as instruments of public value or merely as language in reports.

The Guidance Note applies across all municipal categories: Category A metropolitan municipalities with a single metro council; Category B local municipalities governing towns and local areas within a district; and Category C district municipalities responsible for regional coordination, planning and support across multiple local municipalities. Application may be proportionate, but the King V outcomes remain relevant across all three categories.

Ethical Leadership Must Be Visible

The recurring failures in local government are not caused by a shortage of rules. South Africa has no shortage of legislation, policies, committees or reports. The deeper problem is weak ethical culture, poor consequence management, blurred accountability and decisions that place short-term interests above community outcomes. King V’s ethical leadership principle requires integrity, competence, responsibility, accountability, fairness and transparency. In municipalities, this must be visible in the conduct of councillors, mayors, speakers, municipal managers and senior administrators.

Ethical leadership must be tested where it matters most: procurement, infrastructure priorities, public participation, performance management and the treatment of whistle-blowers. Communities do not experience governance through committee packs. They experience it when water runs, roads are maintained, refuse is collected, public money is protected and officials are held to account.

Oversight Must Move From Ritual To Impact

Too many municipal oversight structures still mistake activity for impact. They meet, receive reports and adopt resolutions, yet persistent audit outcomes and service delivery failures show that oversight is not always translating into corrective action. King V forces a harder question: are governance structures producing the outcomes communities are entitled to expect?

Audit and risk committees should not be procedural forums. The MFMA requires sound and sustainable financial management, with clear responsibilities for councils, accounting officers and senior managers. This demands stronger oversight of budgets, unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, supply chain management, internal controls, risk, compliance, infrastructure delivery and performance information.

Disclosure Should Build Public Trust King V’s disclosure principle is critical because public trust cannot be rebuilt through selective reporting. This aligns with the MFMA’s emphasis on transparent financial management and accountability, and the Municipal Systems Act’s focus on integrated development planning, performance management and community participation. Residents and businesses do not need glossy reports that hide uncomfortable truths. They need honest explanations of governance practices, risks, failures, corrective actions and progress.

For KwaZulu-Natal, this is not theoretical. Municipal performance directly affects business confidence, tourism, property development, infrastructure investment and job creation. Governance failure is not only a public administration issue; it is an economic development constraint. Where municipalities are unstable, businesses carry higher costs, communities are underserved and growth opportunities are lost.

The 4 November 2026 municipal elections will therefore be more than a political contest; they will be a governance test. Voters, political parties, businesses and communities should use King V as a leadership-selection lens. The question should not only be who can win office, but who can lead ethically and effectively, exercise sound oversight, understand risk and compliance, respect transparent reporting, enforce consequence management and build legitimate institutions. King V makes it clear that leadership must be assessed by conduct, competence, accountability, integrity, fairness, responsibility and the ability to govern in the public interest.

A Practical Way Forward

Municipalities should begin with a King V readiness assessment that maps governance structures against King V principles and statutory duties. This should include reviewing council and committee charters, delegation frameworks, section 79 and section 80 committee arrangements, audit and risk committee mandates, risk registers, ethics programmes, consequence management, supply chain controls, integrated development planning, performance reporting and public participation.

Training is no longer a soft issue. Councillors and senior officials need a shared understanding of governance roles, the distinction between oversight and management, and the practical meaning of ethical leadership. Governance cannot be outsourced to legal and compliance departments; it must shape how municipal leaders plan, decide, monitor, disclose and accept accountability.

Candidate selection and post-election appointments should therefore be informed by governance capability, not only political loyalty or popularity. Municipalities need leaders who understand fiduciary responsibility, financial discipline under the MFMA, the separation between oversight and administration, stakeholder accountability and the importance of evidence based decision-making. If King V is taken seriously, leadership selection must prioritise people who can create an ethical culture, demand performance, insist on conformance and restore legitimacy.

Municipal governance is ultimately about legitimacy. As South Africans prepare to elect local representatives on 4 November 2026, corporate governance must become a decisive factor in determining the leadership municipalities need. King V gives voters, councils and administrations a practical standard against which to judge leadership readiness. Frameworks do not change municipalities on their own. Leaders who embody and apply them do.