Voting May Feel Irrational. Municipal Collapse Makes It Personal
South Africa has a date for its next local government elections: 4 November 2026. That turns an old democratic argument into a fresh national test.
Does it make sense to vote?
At first, the question sounds cynical. But Gareth Edwards and Francis Herd take it seriously. The starting point is the paradox of voting. One vote, on its own, is unlikely to change the outcome of an election. For the average voter, the cost is clear. You need to register, read up on parties, understand what they are promising, stand in a queue and give up time that could have been used elsewhere.
On paper, that can look irrational.
But South Africa’s local government reality complicates the theory.
Municipal elections are not abstract. They decide who manages the systems closest to daily life. Roads. Water. Waste. Streetlights. Billing. Electricity infrastructure. Sewage. The visible, practical machinery of a functioning neighbourhood.
That is why this conversation lands harder than a normal voting debate.
Francis Herd points to three economic reasons that make the local government election matter. The first is 16%. That is the share of municipalities that received clean audits for the 2023/24 period, according to the figure discussed in the episode. A clean audit means the books are in order, spending can be properly tracked, and basic financial controls are working. When only a small portion of municipalities can show that level of accountability, service delivery failure becomes easier to understand.
The second figure is more than R100 billion owed to Eskom by municipalities. That debt is not just an accounting problem. It affects power systems, municipal credibility and the ability to maintain infrastructure.
The third is another R100 billion backlog in electricity infrastructure maintenance. That number points to a deeper problem: systems that have not been maintained for years do not fail quietly. They fail in homes, businesses, streets and communities.
Then comes water.
Francis raises concerns around water quality and weak accountability in municipalities. Gareth frames the problem simply: access to water means very little if the water is not safe to drink. That is where governance stops being a political talking point and becomes a public health issue.
This is the heart of the episode.
Voting may feel irrational when viewed as one ballot among millions. But local government is where democratic choices become physical. A pothole is not ideological. A burst pipe is not abstract. A streetlight that stays broken does not care which party slogan sounded best.
For Gareth, the local election is the one people cannot sit out. If South Africans are going to read manifestos, compare parties and ask hard questions, this is where that effort may matter most.
The question is no longer only whether your vote can change the country.
It is whether it can change your street.
Catch up on all Making Sense episodes here: https://www.enca.com/making-sense-south-africas-economic-pulse-budget-2026