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4 weeks ago
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ANCYL president Collen Malatji.
- The ANC Youth League, led by Collen Malatji, is demanding the immediate dismissal of mayors and municipal managers in collapsed municipalities, which the Auditor-General flagged.
- Malatji criticised poor planning, the failure to spend grant funding, and a lack of accountability, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal municipalities, such as uMhlathuze and Mzala Nxumalo.
- He urged the ANC to replace underperforming officials and involve young people as ward councillors in the upcoming local government elections to improve governance.
The ANC Youth League (ANCYL) has called for the immediate dismissal of all mayors and municipal managers in municipalities, which the Auditor-General (AG) has flagged as collapsed and non-functional.
ANCYL president Collen Malatji made the call at a press briefing at the party’s headquarters in Johannesburg this week.
“KwaZulu-Natal is the worst. There are no water and roads, but the municipalities continue to return money to National Treasury, and fire these useless mayors.
“For example, uMhlathuze municipality and one municipality at Mzala Nxumalo in KZN have totally collapsed under the IFP,” he added.
He did not mention ANC-run collapsed municipalities.
Interestingly, the 2023–24 consolidated general report on local government audit outcomes released by the AG in August 2025 states that a significant number of municipalities were flagged as dysfunctional, with many facing total collapse. Most of them are in the Free State, North West, Eastern Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal, and mainly under the ANC’s governance.
The report noted that while 59 municipalities improved, 40 regressed, and 13 failed to submit financial statements for auditing.
According to Malatji, one of the solutions to poor performance by mayors and municipal managers was fielding young people to actively participate in local government by contesting as ward councillors in the looming elections.
“With regards to mayors who are not performing, why do you keep them? You can’t go to local government with mayors who have failed our people,” Malatji said.
In some municipalities, he added, it was obvious that their failure to spend money, especially grant funding, was due to poor planning, saying:
The ANC can’t be harbouring lazy mayors and municipal managers. Even those municipal managers who are hired, they have performance agreements. If they’re not meeting the performance agreements, they must be fired because you can’t be a municipal manager who drives over potholes every day, but you have no problem with that.
According to Malatji, this was a sign of irresponsibility on the part of municipal managers, “because every month they’re getting paid on behalf of the people of South Africa, utilising our taxpayers’ money”.
“The ANC must urgently act on it.”
He called for stability in the City of Johannesburg, where Mayor Dada Morero’s leadership is under scrutiny as he faces a motion of no confidence and resignation calls, allegedly from within the ANC’s ranks and coalition partners.
It is unclear when the motion against Morero will be debated. It was deferred to the next council meeting.
The ANC in Johannesburg has also been rocked by a ballot scandal after ballot papers used in its December conference were found at home in Pretoria. A fraud case has since been opened with the police, and the ANC has launched an investigation into the matter.
“We’re under attack in Johannesburg. There’s no time to play around with police, and jumping fences and acting up. We must fully make sure that we close ranks to defend the ANC in the City of Johannesburg. We can’t afford for Johannesburg to be [in disarray],” Malatji said.
