Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka has found that complaints of poor service delivery against the City of Cape Town were substantiated, with the municipality’s failure to provide constitutionally required basic services to residents of Langa Flats and parts of Khayelitsha amounting to maladministration.
Releasing the report findings in a media briefing on Tuesday, Gcaleka said the Public Protector South Africa’s investigation found that the City had failed to progressively and effectively provide several essential municipal services, resulting in improper conduct and prejudice to affected residents.
The investigation followed complaints received during the Public Protector’s annual outreach visits to the Western Cape in March 2022 and April 2023, where residents of Langa Flats and Khayelitsha raised concerns about deteriorating municipal services and living conditions.
Gcaleka said although the Public Protector and the City had worked together throughout the investigation and some complaints had since been addressed, significant service delivery failures remained.
“The allegation that basic municipal services are not rendered in conformity with the Constitution and the law is substantiated.”
She said the investigation examined whether the City was providing basic municipal services in a progressive and effective manner as required by the Constitution and found failures across several areas, including housing, sanitation, water supply, waste management, electricity, public safety, healthcare facilities and municipal governance.
Among the complaints investigated were allegations that the City had failed to maintain sewer infrastructure, keep communal areas clean, repair potholes and water leaks, conclude lease agreements with residents while continuing to collect rent, transfer ownership of flats, adequately respond to service delivery complaints and ensure clinics were properly resourced.
The report found that the City had not concluded lease agreements with all residents of Langa Flats, despite expecting them to pay monthly rent.
According to the report, this undermined residents’ security of tenure, exposed them to uncertainty and possible eviction, and deprived the municipality of enforceable tenancy arrangements.
The investigation also found that sewer infrastructure at Langa Flats remained in poor condition, communal areas were unkempt, structural defects had not been fully repaired and fire safety equipment remained non-functional.
“The failure by the City to repair and maintain fire safety equipment has a direct bearing on the constitutional rights to life, dignity and adequate housing.”
At the SST-Marikana informal settlement, the Public Protector found that residents continued to experience inadequate access to water while non-functional high mast lights exposed communities to crime and insecurity during the night.
The report further found that the City had failed to engage Eskom before relocating some residents, resulting in families remaining without electricity despite later engagements between the municipality and the power utility.
At Mathew Goniwe and Town Two clinics, the investigation found that smoke detectors and CCTV surveillance systems had not been installed, placing patients, staff and visitors at unnecessary risk.
The report also identified weaknesses in governance, including inadequate enforcement of municipal by-laws, illegal construction on sewer servitudes, recurring sewer blockages, illegal dumping and refuse accumulation despite regular waste collection services.
“The municipality’s failure to implement reasonable measures within available resources, coupled with its inadequate response to three years of documented service delivery deficiencies despite multiple commitments and undertakings, establishes a pattern of conduct that falls squarely within the definition of improper conduct.”
While acknowledging that the City faced serious financial and operational pressures, including ageing infrastructure, land invasions, vandalism, rapid urbanisation and competing service delivery priorities, Gcaleka said these challenges could not justify ongoing violations of residents’ constitutional rights.
“While these financial constraints do not absolve municipalities from their constitutional obligations to progressively realise socio-economic rights within available resources, the persistent service delivery challenges identified in this report raise broader questions regarding whether the existing inter-governmental fiscal framework and equitable allocation of nationally raised revenue sufficiently support municipalities with extensive informal settlements and significant infrastructure backlogs.”
She said the report therefore recommended that the Minister of Finance, together with the Ministers of Human Settlements and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, assess whether the current intergovernmental funding framework adequately supports municipalities facing extensive infrastructure backlogs, growing informal settlements and increasing service delivery demands.
The report further recommends stronger coordination between all spheres of government to improve planning, funding and implementation of municipal service delivery programmes.
In addition to the recommendations, Gcaleka issued binding remedial action against the City of Cape Town.
Gcaleka directed the Executive Mayor of Cape Town to ensure that the remedial action is implemented by the Municipal Manager and to table the report before the Municipal Council within 60 days.
She ordered the Municipal Manager to ensure residents of the SST-Marikana informal settlement have access to water within 30 days and to provide an action plan for additional water taps and sanitation facilities.
The City has also been instructed to complete long-term repairs to sewer infrastructure in Langa Flats and Khayelitsha within 120 days and submit both short and long-term rehabilitation plans to the Public Protector.
The municipality must also provide an action plan to regularise occupation at Langa Flats and conclude lease agreements with affected residents, develop a long-term cleaning strategy for communal areas, restore non-functional high mast lights, engage Eskom on electricity for relocated families and ensure municipal clinics are equipped with smoke detectors or other early fire-warning systems.
She also called for stronger coordination between all spheres of government to improve
The Western Cape MEC for Local Government has also been directed to monitor the City’s implementation of the remedial action on a quarterly basis and consider intervention should substantial non-compliance occur.
Gcaleka said constitutional rights could not be postponed indefinitely because of resource limitations.
“We acknowledge the highly complex and often dangerous conditions under which the functionaries of the City of Cape Town operate and thank the City for its cooperation and interventions during this investigation process.
However, the fundamental rights to dignity, water, safety, and adequate housing cannot be placed on hold indefinitely. The Constitution demands progressive realisation, and it demands accountability.”
She said the Public Protector’s office expected the City of Cape Town, the Western Cape Provincial Government and the relevant national departments to fully implement the remedial action to ensure residents of Langa Flats and Khayelitsha received the services guaranteed by the Constitution.
The City Responds
Responding to the report, the City of Cape Town said it welcomed the Public Protector’s acknowledgement that it had worked closely with the office throughout the investigation.
“The City welcomes the Public Protector’s emphasis that it has worked closely with her office to ensure all matters have been attended to,” the City said.
The City also welcomed the findings directed at the National Treasury and the Department of Human Settlements, saying they recognised the financial and infrastructure challenges facing municipalities.
It maintained that basic municipal services were being provided at the N2 Gateway development, that security measures were in place at the clinics and that the relocated families had access to water and sanitation services.
The City said further sewer upgrades were planned, an additional standpipe would be installed by mid-July for the relocated families in SST-Marikana, and smoke detectors and CCTV cameras would be installed at the clinics once planned renovations were completed.
It added that it would submit a detailed response to the Public Protector’s final report in due course.
IOL Politics
*This story has been updated to include comment from The City of Cape Town.
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