Outgoing Midvaal mayor Bongani Baloyi says strong leadership and community participation in municipalities are the best ways to prevent the rot of corruption and maladministration seeping into towns and cities.

"Leadership is where things start moving. After that is the institution's governance and [whether] the intentional working of the institution is to allow thieves to do whatever they want and raid the public purse.

"So, I think leadership and the working of governance are important. Everything else becomes a manifestation of these two, whether it is corruption or maladministration. Various other manifestations are the direct result of [a] lack of leadership and the lack of strong governance in these institutions," he said.

According to Baloyi, there was inadequate community and civil activism.

"It has its highs and lows, and it is issue-based. You get elected into office, and people trust you with the responsibility that has been given to you. Regular monitoring and robust engagement do not follow."

He said, "Whenever we go to communities, it's never holding the executive account, but rather to moan why a project is not happening and not really about what is actually happening with regards to the institution's performance. I think there is a lack of civil and community participation in holding those elected to office to account."

The Midvaal local municipality in Meyerton, Gauteng, is one of the country's top-performing municipalities.

In 2013, Baloyi, from the DA, became the youngest person to become an executive mayor in South Africa at just 26-years-old.

Since his tenure, Baloyi received seven consecutive clean audits, indicating the council's stable and sound financial management principles.

Under Baloyi's leadership, it went from being the 16th best-performing municipality in 2013, to the fifth-best in the national rankings.

Baloyi said community activism was a core foundation of the Midvaal municipality:

We have strong activism from various interest groups who can keep a watchful eye over the institution and really ask difficult questions about the performance, which does not really happen in public. I really think our communities need to understand the business of local government and beyond just complaining about streets, but also ask questions which sustain the output and performance and the governance of the institution.

Baloyi said in Midvaal, it was difficult to sleep on the job.

"Communities have a vested interest in their communities. What inspired this, is seeing what is happening in our border municipalities. We see what is happening in Emfuleni local municipality," he said.