From the CEO
On 4 November, voters elect the councils that will run service delivery for the next five years. Business may not get a vote but arguably carries considerably high exposure to the outcome.
The article below makes the case for partnership between business and local government. Whilst these partnerships sound promising, the part that usually gets left out is that partnership fails without machinery. Operation Vulindlela did not work only because business and government agreed to cooperate, they had agreed to cooperate for years without meaningful impact. Operation Vulindlela worked because someone was accountable for a defined list of reforms, progress was published, and a unit existed whose job was to unblock them.
That machinery does not exist across this province’s thirty municipalities. Each negotiates its own arrangements with business, repeats the same mistakes, and starts over when a council changes. Closing that gap is the work ACT is turning to next.
We’re conceptualising delivery capability that sits above any single municipality and outlasts any single election. Modelled on Operation Vulindlela but scoped to what a province can actually own. Growth for Jobs, the provincial economic growth strategy, sets the destination. We’re developing the machinery to get there faster. More on that exciting evolution shortly, but reach out in the interim if you’d like further detail.
Vote on the 4th. Then help us build the thing that makes who won matter less than what gets delivered.
FOCUS ISSUE
From National Reform to Local Action
A few years ago, government and business working together to address South Africa’s power crisis would have seemed unlikely. Yet the partnership has helped shift the national reform agenda. Through Operation Vulindlela, the Presidency and National Treasury have driven structural reforms, while business has contributed capital, skills and implementation capacity.
Electrical generation has opened to private investment, private participation in rail and ports is advancing, and visa processes are being modernised. Much remains unfinished, but the lesson is clear: when government sets direction and business helps deliver, significant progress is possible.
The next test is local. Municipalities shape the conditions in which businesses operate and communities live, from water and electricity to roads, safety and service delivery. Operation Vulindlela’s second phase recognises this, placing local government performance firmly on the reform agenda. National progress only matters when people experience it in their daily lives.
On 4 November, voters will elect the municipal councils responsible for delivering these services over the next five years. The partnership between government and business need not end at national level, nor should it depend on who wins. It requires shared priorities, clear responsibilities, transparent measures of progress and a sustained commitment to delivery.
Across the Western Cape’s 30 municipalities, there is opportunity to turn this approach into practical local action. Businesses have expertise, resources and a direct stake in better functioning municipalities. The challenge is to work with local government to address the issues that matter most.
Business doesn’t need to take sides in the election. It needs to work constructively with local and provincial government to turn shared priorities into progress.
Question for members: Which local challenge could your business help address in partnership with your municipality?
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Partnership in Action: Santam and Local Government
Since 2012, Santam’s Partnership for Risk and Resilience has worked with more than 80 municipalities across South Africa to strengthen their capacity to manage fire, flood and other disaster risks. Rather than simply providing equipment, Santam works alongside municipal teams on planning, training and early warning systems to help communities prepare for disasters and reduce their impact.
Closer to home, the programme has supported fire services on the West Coast, Cape Winelands and Overberg ahead of fire season. It demonstrates how business can contribute more than funding by sharing the expertise and resources municipalities need to strengthen local resilience.
WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
Running municipal water and electricity like professional utilities
Seven metros, including Cape Town, have begun one of the biggest local government reforms in decades: operating water and electricity as professional utilities, with the revenue reinvested in infrastructure. It’s a reform the incoming councils will inherit, and one where business, as a major user and investor, has a real stake in helping it succeed. Read more on EWN
NUMBER OF THE WEEK
12
South Africa has now produced 12 Nobel laureates, with Navi Pillay recognised with the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize for her work on human rights and international justice. Their achievements span medicine, chemistry, literature and peace, from Max Theiler (the first South African-born Nobel laureate) who was awarded the 1951 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for developing a vaccine against yellow fever in 1937 to Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk’s shared prize in 1993 for a transition built on working across deep divides. In an election season, their achievements are a reminder of the contribution South Africans can make to the world, and of what becomes possible when talent, courage and conviction are put to work for the greater good.
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