The local sphere of government was not the only culprit in service delivery failures that resulted in violent protests, the Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Yunus Carrim said on Monday.

"It would be wrong to think that local government alone is responsible for service delivery failures," Carrim told delegates at a conference for municipal finance officers at the International Convention Centre in Durban.

Politicians and administrators in provincial and national government should also take the blame, he said.

"Yes, local government councillors and administrators must take their fair share of blame for the failures. Politicians and administrators in the provincial and national government spheres must also take the blame."

Service delivery protests and other community uprisings reflected the failure of cooperative governance as a whole, not just local government, said Carrim.

In some cases people demanded things which were not primarily the responsibility of local government such as housing, jobs, less crime and education.

Carrim said that there was a need to accelerate service delivery to improve lives.

"Only 54% of the country's population has access to all the four basic services of water, sanitation, electricity and refuse removal."

He said that the Monitoring, Support and Intervention Bill was aimed at providing a uniform framework for how provincial government should intervene in municipalities.

"Currently, provincial governments usually intervene when a municipality is teetering on the brink of collapse," he said.

The bill would provide for early warning signals and for provincial intervention in municipalities before they become dysfunctional.