More than 300 councillors were killed in South Africa in the past few years, while 900 service delivery protests were held in the country between August 2020 and January 2021. 

The statistics were revealed during the South African Local Government Association’s council of mayors conference in East London on Thursday.

The two-day conference, opened by President Cyril Ramaphosa, brought together almost all 168 South African mayors to deliberate and collaborate on matters concerning service provision, local governance and strengthening municipalities to carry out their constitutional mandate. 

Addressing the delegates, Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane said most of the protests related to local government, the coalface of the governance system. 

To stave off these protests, he said local government must be adequately funded for them to meet the minimum requirements of an ideal municipality.

"We all know that the current funding formula is flawed and ill informed as more resources should be allocated to the sphere closest to the people. We must resolve the funding issue for local government as a matter of urgency," the Premier said.

In his keynote address, Ramaphosa, said: "We have seen a deeply disturbing trend of attacks on councillors and municipal administrators. I am told that more than 300 councillors have been killed in the past few years by virtue of being councillors."

Ramaphosa said there was hardly a municipality in the country, regardless of who ran it, that had not been impacted by some form of protest.

The president added: "Although this violence has varying causes, we need to once again take a hard look at the extent to which this is a manifestation of something much deeper. Is it as a result of public anger or is it because some of our municipalities have been captured by other interests? Have criminals taken over some of our municipalities?"

Ramaphosa urged mayors to lead the country’s transition to renewable energy sources, efficient water use and management, effective solid waste management, the construction of climate-proof infrastructure, and green transportation.

He also said mayors should help improve the municipalities’ revenue collection.

"We are committed to provide free basic services to indigent households, but everyone else must pay for the services that municipalities provide. Mayors must be at the forefront of spreading this message among the residents of your municipalities. Yet in municipality after municipality, we have been hearing the same story," Ramaphosa said.

Mabuyane called for strengthened and improved financial controls to achieve unqualified audits focusing on stable administrative leadership, with skills and capability to manage the affairs of the municipalities and eliminate the use of consultants for the development of annual financial statements.

"Our municipalities should also beef up engineering departments to maintain the quality of the services such as water reticulation, managing water supplies, strong systems for accurate billing of customers and revenue collection to expand social services, particularly to the indigent residences," he said.