President Cyril Ramaphosa recently made a striking acknowledgment at the ANC’s councillor roll call in Soweto, noting that DA-led municipalities often outperform those run by the ANC.

“We cannot forever stay at the bottom,” he said, urging councillors to learn from municipalities that deliver better results. This frank admission underscores a broader challenge: South African municipalities must restore public trust by improving service delivery, enhancing accountability and operating with transparency.

Many municipalities struggle to deliver services efficiently due to siloed, incomplete or outdated data. Revenue collection, for example, is hampered when departments do not have a unified view of assets or service areas. Waste management often exposes these gaps. During audits, municipalities may report the number of households served, yet thousands of units (often unregistered sectional schemes) are effectively invisible in official systems. Waste trucks continue to service these areas without clarity on ownership or billing, while municipalities remain unaware of service gaps. Similarly, informal developments, new housing or unregistered properties can fall through the cracks, leading to under-collected rates and taxes, inefficient service allocation and in some cases, illegal access to utilities.

In the face of widespread municipal issues across South Africa, this may seem like an insurmountable challenge. But it’s actually not.

A relatively straight-forward solution lies in a geographic information system-enabled asset management system. By that, I’m referring to a centralised data platform accessible across municipal departments. Such a system integrates billing, legal, water and infrastructure information to name a few, creating a single source of truth for all municipal assets. Councillors and managers can track every household, every service request and every asset, from water pipes and electricity lines to waste collection routes. This allows municipalities to measure coverage, identify service gaps and allocate resources based on real-time insights. For example, if a resident reports a water blockage or electricity fault, the system can verify property ownership, cross-check infrastructure details, assign the task to the correct personnel and track progress until the issue is resolved.

Accountability

This centralised approach also improves accountability. Service requests, such as sewer blockages or uncollected waste, are logged with clear ownership and status updates. Councillors can access historical records of incidents, monitor response times and ensure municipal teams follow up appropriately. The system also supports tender and contract verification by confirming the legitimacy of service providers, their registered addresses and compliance with municipal boundaries. This reduces opportunities for corruption, as contractors are verified and their milestones are monitored, ensuring that payment is only made for work completed.

An asset management system further allows municipalities to overlay critical geospatial data, including deeds, cadastre records, land use and flood-prone areas. This enables informed decision-making when planning infrastructure, approving new developments or responding to emergencies. It is especially vital in municipalities lacking skilled GIS practitioners, where much of the data exists in silos or in formats that cannot be analysed holistically. By integrating these layers, municipalities gain clarity on what land belongs to them, which areas are serviced and where infrastructure needs attention, ultimately ensuring more equitable and efficient service delivery.

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The benefits extend to daily operational efficiency. A resident’s electricity or water service issue, for instance, can be immediately cross-referenced against property ownership, billing status and infrastructure location. Even situations involving hijacked properties or disputed tenancy can be managed with transparency, ensuring that municipal interventions are accurate and fair. Real-time insights also enable municipalities to measure their coverage and identify gaps in service, allowing for proactive planning rather than reactive firefighting.

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It might sound extensive, but practically implementing such a system is in fact quite realistic. A base deployment can be completed in approximately 10 weeks, providing immediate visibility into assets, workflows and service coverage. Additional weeks are required to configure workflows, overlay GIS data and integrate municipal processes, with a fully operational, tailored system achievable in roughly six months. Once implemented, municipalities can generate reports, track tickets, monitor progress and maintain comprehensive audit trails, supporting both internal accountability and public trust.

President Ramaphosa’s call for municipal improvement emphasises the importance of learning from success. GIS-enabled asset management offers a clear path forward, combining transparency, accountability and evidence-based decision-making. By centralising data, integrating real-time insights and creating structured workflows, municipalities can proactively address service delivery challenges, reduce corruption risks and respond effectively to citizens’ needs.

Read: How geospatial insights can transform service delivery planning and analysis in South Africa

The time for reactive governance has passed. With GIS-enabled systems, South African municipalities have no reason not to lead with honour, restore public trust and ensure that every resident receives the services they are entitled to. A data-driven, transparent and accountable approach is no longer optional. For anyone looking to govern successfully, this approach is essential for building functional, responsive, and resilient municipalities for the future.