President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged municipalities to adhere to standardised levels of service delivery so they can create the type of environment that will attract investors.

Speaking on Thursday at a National Council of Provinces (NCOP) sitting in Alberton, south of Johannesburg, Ramaphosa said municipalities should be able to coordinate basic service delivery so that companies located in them can benefit and in turn create jobs.

"We should not allow ourselves to be distracted from carrying out our mandate, and it is for that reason as government that we should not be distracted by noisemakers on the side who do not want to see programmes succeed," he said, without specifying who those critics were.

"We must take our work seriously and act against reports of corruption in our municipalities," he added.

He said issues of corruption should be dealt with urgently because when local government fails, it is the people on the ground who suffer most.

The president's annual NCOP address will be followed by a debate and his reply. It will conclude the NCOP's week-long programme, "Taking Parliament to the People".

The initiative, which started on Monday, has covered all the province's municipalities.

The parliamentary oversight programme also serves as a platform for the public to hold their leaders accountable on service delivery issues raised in public hearings.

Ramaphosa urged members of the public to respect the rule of law when demonstrating against poor service delivery.

However, Ramaphosa also said government should acknowledge that it had failed on several aspects of basic service delivery and should now work on making communities happy.

"Government is responded with arrogance, because it has failed," he said.