The South African Local Government Association (SALGA) and The Global Trust Project (TGTP – part of VUKA Group) will pilot the Trust Equity Framework (TEf) in 18 municipalities across South Africa.
The initiative planned for the next three years, will be voluntary for participating municipalities and is intended to support stronger municipal trustworthiness, improved service delivery, better stakeholder relationships and more credible local conditions for investment.
Dominic Wilhelm, Executive Director, the Global Trust Project, said the pilot’s timing is perfect, to address findings of a recent report by the Auditor-General (AG) of South Africa.
According to the AG, municipalities took an average of 123 days to collect money owed to them in 2023/24, and wrote off R50.96 billion in debt.
They recorded water losses of R14.93 billion and electricity losses of R22.36 billion.
National Treasury also placed local government reform and the review of the local government fiscal framework on its 2025/26 agenda.
The SALGA and TGTP initiative will include baseline assessment, leadership engagement, implementation support, follow-up evaluation and the development of a public South African Playbook on Trust-Rich Municipalities.
Lerato Phasa, Portfolio Head for Municipal Finance, Fiscal Policy and Revenue Enhancement at SALGA, said “our role is to strengthen local government through practical support, institutional development and reform-oriented collaboration. This pilot is aligned with that work. It is voluntary, evidence-based and intended to generate useful practice from within the realities municipalities face.”
Picture: The Global Trust.