Improving public services in South Africa often happens away from the cameras, said a senior adviser who has spent more than two decades working across municipalities and government agencies. The focus, he said, is on tightening financial systems, plugging revenue leakages and building managerial capacity — not only finding more money.
Systems and leadership at the centre
Miyelani Holeni, Group Chief Advisor at Ntiyiso Consulting Group, discussed the challenges of rebuilding public institutions in an interview with Stephen Grootes on The Money Show, reported by EWN. Holeni’s work spans local government, financial services and other sectors. He emphasised that the technical aspects of reform — budgeting, revenue collection and institutional design — are essential to sustainable change.
Holeni pointed to a long-standing problem in municipalities: weak systems that allow revenue to be lost or under‑collected. His previous role leading a revenue management and enhancement programme at Ekurhuleni Metro involved overseeing 25 projects aimed at improving income generation. Those projects, he said, shaped his view that fiscal improvement requires more than additional funding.
"we look at, leakages, in terms of the systems. we look at how then we increase the coverage of the services or the revenue or the service delivery and all of those different things. So the knowledge that we have, we've institutionalised it."
Holeni described Ntiyiso’s work as turning underperforming institutions into organisations that can sustain themselves and create opportunities. He listed key areas of intervention as revenue management, financial sustainability, local government transformation and economic development.
- Revenue management: identifying and closing collection gaps that erode municipal incomes.
- Financial systems: strengthening budgeting, expenditure control and accounting processes.
- Leadership and accountability: capacity building for municipal managers and clearer lines of responsibility.
- Economic development: aligning municipal planning with measures that can expand the tax base and local economic activity.
Why the invisible work matters
South Africans commonly frame government failure in political terms: corruption scandals, factional battles and service delivery protests. Holeni argued that while those problems matter, the day-to-day technical and managerial fixes determine whether services reach people reliably.
He said that improving service delivery is partly about extending coverage and partly about making the money that municipalities already receive go further. That requires investing in systems to reduce "leakages", improving billing and credit-control processes, and ensuring that leadership can implement and sustain reforms.
| Area | Practical focus |
|---|---|
| Revenue management | Increase billing coverage, stop losses, recover arrears |
| Financial sustainability | Budget discipline, transparent accounting, long-term planning |
| Local government | Operational reforms, service-delivery process redesign |
| Economic development | Link planning to revenue growth and job creation |
Those reforms, if implemented, can reduce the need for constant emergency bailouts and allow municipalities to invest in infrastructure and maintenance rather than merely patching crises. Holeni said his team institutionalises lessons from projects so that improvements outlast specific interventions.
He also noted the political sensitivity of some reforms. Measures such as stricter billing and debt recovery can be unpopular even when they are fiscally necessary. For reforms to stick, Holeni said, municipal leaders must balance technical fixes with transparent communication and accountability measures.
Experts and municipal officials have previously warned that without stronger financial management and capable leadership, many metros and district municipalities will remain unable to provide reliable water, electricity and sanitation. Holeni’s account adds a practitioner’s view of what successful reform looks like in practice: methodical, technical and often unglamorous.
The interview did not set out a timetable for reforms or quantify potential fiscal gains from specific projects. Those outcomes remain dependent on political will, institutional capacity and sustained funding. Holeni’s remarks, as reported by EWN, underline that rebuilding public institutions is a long-term process that depends on steady implementation rather than headline-grabbing announcements.
