Imagine having to live in a place filled with potholes, where most of the time you do not have electricity and when load-shedding hits so too do the thieves. For many residents living in Merafong, this is the reality – daily.

I have recently been raising awareness around the collapse of service delivery in Merafong, on the far West Rand in Gauteng. The municipality oversees various towns including Carletonville, Fochville, Khutsong, Wedela and Blybank, whose residents are in dire need of basic services.

Theft of municipal infrastructure is a daily occurrence, leading to protracted power outages. Municipal officials have told councillors they do not even report these cases to the police anymore. It simply takes too long and never leads to arrests and convictions.

This begs the question: what are the consequences for a municipal official who does not do the job he/she is paid for? I reached out to a senior councillor in the Merafong Council and his answers were revealing. Firstly, officials hide behind the “there is no money” excuse for not doing their jobs, specifically grass-cutting, filling potholes and replacing streetlights.

But the second reason is more compelling. Most of the senior managers in Merafong, including the municipal manager, are deployed in an acting capacity. This is a long-standing problem, so let me provide some context.

According to the Municipal Systems Act, Merafong has until November 1 2022 to appoint its new municipal manager. Although a person may not act for more than three months, the MEC may grant permission for an extension on good cause shown.

Otherwise, the position will just rotate through available staff on a 90-day basis. It follows that if most senior managers are in an acting capacity, they will be extra cautious about signing off new contracts, introducing new policy directives, or executing consequence management for staff who underperform.

Why? Because acting incumbents are just seat fillers. People with a career in government bureaucracy know this. It is more important to keep your job than to do your job. It is certainly too risky to effect discipline while you are the acting executive director when tomorrow you are back at your old job where you tried to get your colleagues charged for misconduct.

This reality is complicated further by the upcoming internal elections in the ANC. Disruptive leadership changes within a ruling party have consequences for officials too because political office bearers tend to bring their inner circle along with them to any new “deployment”. The gravy train will stop so that the old guard can disembark, and the new guard can get on board.

Outside of the political nature of the job, there is another problem: what if small local governments such as Merafong simply cannot attract the talent they need? The candidate for a municipal manager post in Merafong must possess at least a Bachelor’s degree in a related field, five years of experience at senior management level, and advanced knowledge of local government legislation, operational systems and structures. No such person is willing to work for the salary Merafong can afford.

A municipality works much better in a stable, capable and predictable work environment and things will not improve for Merafong in the short term until contracted senior officials are appointed and left to do their jobs, without political interference.

• Cilliers is MPL and the DA constituency head for Merafong