Over 100 municipalities conducted skills audits and here is what they lacked the most

Municipal officials are requiring training and development in almost all key areas of local governance.

At least 113 municipalities conducted skills audits in recent years to identify where their staff required assistance.

The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) stressed that skills audits were not lifestyle audits, but were designed to inform municipal capacity-building.

“Skills audits are intended principally to identify competency and development gaps and to inform workplace skills plans, training, and employee-development interventions.

“A skills gap does not, by itself, establish that an employee lacks the prescribed qualifications, was irregularly appointed or is subject to disciplinary action,” the department stated.

Skills audits between 2022 and 2026

The department provided information on the outcomes of skills audits in a recent response to a written question submitted in parliament.

However, only six provinces had conducted skills audits since 2021, with Limpopo and the Eastern and Northern Cape being the exclusions.

KwaZulu-Natal provided the bulk of reports, with all 54 municipalities in the province being audited, while Gauteng and the Western Cape audited eight and 16 of their municipalities, respectively.

The Free State audited five, eight were audited in Mpumalanga, and all 22 of the North West’s municipalities were audited.

KZN’s audits were completed back in 2022, while the North West and Western Cape completed theirs in 2025.

Gauteng, Mpumalanga and the Free State were the most recent auditees, who completed theirs in the 2025-26 financial year.

Individual municipalities were responsible for verifications and compliance assessments, as well as instituting the relevant action when irregularities were found, yet none were disclosed.

“Provincial submissions used different methods and levels of detail. The identified needs are provincially reported summaries and are not directly comparable national findings.

“The department has not received consolidated and verified information on action taken by individual municipalities against employees identified as having inadequate qualifications,” Cogta stated.

Electricity and water ubiquitous

All provincial reports conceded that their municipalities needed skills development in financial management, as well as managing electricity, water, and road infrastructure.

Cape Town was not among the audited municipalities, although the Western Cape’s largest development needs were listed as spatial planning, debt collection, labour relations, employee wellness, and supply chain and investment management.

Owing to the broad sample of data, KZN cited skills shortages in project management, planning, problem-solving, ethics, technical drawing, record-keeping, emergency care and traffic management, among others.

The North West’s report listed communication and interpersonal skills among its biggest needs, and Mpumalanga’s noted a lack of service-delivery orientation and data analysis.

The three metropolitan municipalities in Gauteng submitted their skills audit reports, listing a host of mechanical and administrative needs.

Gauteng as a whole stated it required development in strategic leadership, performance management, computer literacy, monitoring and evaluation, and protocol and diplomacy, among others.

Scrap ‘political loyalty’

In the run-up to the elections, the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) released several reports on municipal governance, specifically in Johannesburg.

In separate reports on stamping out corruption and skills-based appointments, the CDE argued for “merit-based processes” for appointing board members and senior officials.

Entities control billions in budgets, with the policy researchers stressing the need to prioritise industry-specific knowledge.

“Political allegiance has frequently taken precedence over whether candidates have the skills and experience required for the jobs for which they are appointed.

“There is a serious shortage of technical and professional skills in the city. [Johannesburg’s] own annual reports point to persistent vacancies among engineers, finance professionals, ICT specialists, project managers, and supply-chain experts,” a CDE report states.

In hoping for a fresh input of ideas after 4 November, the organisation wanted to see a setting aside of “political loyalty” in Johannesburg.

“The new administration needs to put processes in place to ensure that candidates have the right mix of skill, experience and integrity.

“The more senior the municipal position, and the greater the influence it exercises over money, appointments and contracting, the stronger the presumption should be in favour of open recruitment, published criteria, professional assessment and recorded reasons for decisions,” the CDE stated.