Community Action Network

27/09/2026

Does your municipality have an open valuation roll? Do you need a property valuation report? Do you need help objecting to a valuation? Check out our dedicated page that helps answer all these questions here:

Check your property valuation and dispute incorrect municipal valuations across South Africa. Access General Valuation Rolls, understand property prices, and submit objections before deadlines.

16/09/2026

SIU eThekwini probe expanded as city budgets R318m for protection -

President Cyril Ramaphosa has expanded a corruption investigation into eThekwini Municipality’s sprawling security operation. Six contracts spanning nearly 23 years of procurement are now under the microscope as the city budgets hundreds of millions of rand for private guards and VIP protection.

04/08/2026

Opinion: Civil society must not imitate the bureaucracy it is supposed to hold accountable. We need to assert ourselves, defend workable ideas and remain willing to make officials uncomfortable.

Rigorous oversight is important. Proper governance matters. But there comes a point when the human element - the willingness to stand up and fight for change - must take centre stage.

02/08/2026

Opinion: The uncomfortable reality is that South Africa lacks a consistently enforced strategy for repairing broken municipalities.

The ballot box remains one of the few ways residents can remove failed political leaders, but elections alone cannot rebuild an institution. Voters can replace a mayor or governing party, only to find the same compromised officials, contractors and patronage networks embedded in the administration.

Nor is withholding funding enough. It may force municipalities to produce compliance plans, but it will not rebuild billing systems, recover stolen money, repair infrastructure or remove incompetent officials.

The municipalities identified by Treasury are in serious financial distress now. They cannot remain in a five-year holding pattern.

06/07/2026

Excellent piece on how that despite the success of the politics of the street in South Africa, the politcs of the ballot box is still much more effective.

An urgent question arising from the 30 June protests is whether mass action on the streets can fuel the rise of a populist party, writes Jonny Steinberg.

24/06/2026

FROM JOBURG? Then you NEED to join this webinar. 🧾⚠️

Join us as we decode your City bill with Lufuno Mashau, a seasoned municipal finance executive with extensive experience in local government financial management.

This is a webinar you DO NOT want to miss.

https://zurl.co/LZC3r

22/06/2026

22/06/2026

READ NOW: The era of faceless party politics must end

South Africa has built a political culture in which leadership too often operates in an unaccountable space. The party failed. The system failed. The coalition failed. The municipality failed. The global economy failed. The previous administration failed.
Almost everyone failed, except the person in charge.

https://open.substack.com/pub/newsproject/p/the-era-of-faceless-party-politics?r=2nty3f&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

03/06/2026

Opinion | Collapsing steadily

"The harder question is whether, by the middle of the next decade, the party that once dominated SA politics will still exist at all in a form that matters."

"The harder question is whether, by the middle of the next decade, the party that once dominated SA politics will still exist at all in a form that matters."