Picture: Nigel Sibanda
What are the responsibilities of a ward councillor and why does this matter?
It matters because the 2026 local government elections could dramatically change this country for the better.
And voters need to understand who is responsible for Joburg’s decline.
Where the DA governs, service delivery is improved.
Cape Town and Midvaal are obvious examples.
Yet service delivery is not always good in DA wards in cities governed by ANC/EFF/ActionSA coalitions.
Why not? DA ward councillors always try their best, but they cannot perform miracles.
Only in fables can alchemists turn dross into gold.
Even the best councillors fall short of expectations when a municipality is run by corrupt incompetents.
This week, Caxton newspapers in Joburg asked a question which has been well covered in their publications, even if few readers heed the answers: what are the responsibilities and roles of a ward councillor?
I wrote about this in The Citizen four years ago (“Councillors not scapegoats”).
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This was in response to a Sunday Times editorial which asked: “… what is so complicated when councillors are merely asked to ensure garbage is collected, clean water is delivered to our homes, potholes aren’t allowed to degenerate into dongas and traffic lights don’t malfunction when it rains? Is that too much to ask of our esteemed councillors in 2021?”
Yes, it was too much to ask.
And wrong to heap gross municipal dysfunctionality on ward councillors’ constrained shoulders.
Councillors strive to help ensure service delivery, but it is not their responsibility.
The onus lies with the mayor and his MMCs and the city manager and his administration.
Fast-forward to 2025. Service delivery in Joburg is worse.
Residents are understandably angry and disappointed.
When they need to vent, the easiest target is the ward councillor.
“I voted for you,” many will say, even if they did not.
While door-to-door canvassing on a Saturday morning for the Ward 99 by-election, we encountered a resident who said the last time he voted was long ago, in Zimbabwe.
And he would never again vote.
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In his view that was a clever argument.
Pericles, the Greek politician and general, thought otherwise: “Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you.”
At local level, politics affects the condition of your roads; the reliability of water and electricity services; the quality and safety of your neighbourhood, including parks and riverine areas.
The cause of Johannesburg’s rot is political.
The wrong people are in charge because of politics.
Change for the better can only come about through politics.
A ward councillor’s primary role is to represent the ward’s residents in the city council, to help ensure concerns are heard in municipal decision-making processes.
There’s also an oversight role, which includes monitoring and advocating for effective delivery of services such as water, electricity, refuse collection and road maintenance.
These tasks are difficult when the people in charge are wrecking the city.
Understand who is responsible for the terrible state of the city.
Make sure those types are voted out, if you want Joburg and South Africa to succeed.
Your role, your duty, is to vote.
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