Godongwana’s MTBPS ushers in new era of accountability and capacity building for municipalities

By Johnathan Paoli

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s 2025 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) has set out an ambitious and reform-oriented agenda to strengthen local government performance, signalling a decisive shift toward accountability, professionalisation, and infrastructure-led growth at the municipal level.

Godongwana also announced that R1 billion has been allocated to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) for the 2026 municipal elections.

Presenting the statement in Parliament on Tuesday, Godongwana said municipalities would remain central to South Africa’s service delivery model but warned that new measures are needed to ensure that public funds deliver tangible results, especially in basic services such as water, sanitation, electricity, and waste management.

“Municipalities are at the forefront of providing essential services, but many are fraught with capacity constraints that hinder their ability to turn allocated budgets into reliable services,” he said.

Municipalities, said Godongwana, will receive a slightly higher share of the national budget.

According to