President Cyril Ramaphosa will on Thursday launch the Revised White Paper on Local Government, 2026, South Africa's plan to fix persistent failures in municipal governance, financial management, institutional capacity and service delivery, the government news agency SAnews reported.
The launch, at the Birchwood Hotel and OR Tambo Conference Centre in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, runs under the theme 'Every Municipality Must Work: From Policy to Collective Action.' The White Paper was approved by Cabinet and builds on the national dialogue on local government, including resolutions of the 2022 Presidential Local Government Summit and stakeholder consultations since.
At its core is a differentiated approach: metropolitan, secondary-city, rural and small-town municipalities have different capacities and needs, and the policy framework is meant to treat them differently rather than forcing one model on all 257 municipalities.
The launch will also introduce an Implementation Plan and a Transition Management Body to carry the policy from paper into practice, alongside a Research Compendium of the work behind the review. Ramaphosa committed to finalising the revised White Paper in his 2026 State of the Nation Address, and political and administrative leaders from all 257 municipalities are expected, with organised local government, traditional and Khoi-San leadership, labour, business and civil society.
