South Africa’s main municipalities, with the exception of Cape Town, are in a “death spiral,” spending way too much money on administrative staff and too little on maintaining and building infrastructure, a deputy finance minister warned.
“Salary bills have grown much faster than inflation, faster than revenue and far faster than service outputs,” Ashor Sarupen told the Cape Town Press Club on Wednesday. “The result is a state that looks busy, that delivers less, consuming more in salaries and symbolism, while investing less in infrastructure that actually keeps our cities alive.”