Municipal Problems Essay

Municipal functions that should be performed as well as the municipal structures in line with capacity requirements are determined by the Municipal Structures Act (Act 117 of 1998). Municipalities are divided into categories of three – A, B and C. Where the category A municipalities are the Metropolitan Municipalities. These kinds of municipalities are only six in South Africa and are mainly cities with a large urban core and extended rural periphery when using the core-periphery model. Category A municipalities have significant capacity and therefore performs the greatest functions. Category B municipalities are referred to as the Local Municipalities. The South African local municipalities act states that these are currently 232 in the

This although led to problems such as one not being able to be informed about for e.g. natural disasters, hence not being able to get to safety in time. Today there are millions of households that have access to electricity. Eskom states that up to 64% of the households in South Africa have access to basic electricity. In South Africa, the provision of electricity by municipalities was established in the late 1990’s and is subject to Electricity Act (Act 41 of 1987). There are major challenges in continuing to aim to provide electricity in every household. As they have to provide electricity to 1.8 million homes and still provide affordable and equitable services to customers. In Kanana village majority, if not all households have access to basic

Basic municipal services are there to develop South African communities, hence the Reconstruction and development programme was implemented. The delivery of municipal services in South Africa has not been as efficient as it was anticipated after the apartheid. The African bank development states that this may be because of lack of affordability, cost recovery, operation and maintenance, human resource and capacity skills and etc. (African development bank,