Dr Cloete says the book grew from a simple curiosity about why some municipalities succeed while others struggle. His interest was sparked by Senqu Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape and its strong financial governance, leading him to explore the stories of people doing things differently across local government and wider society. “Looking back across the 115 episodes, what struck me most was the number of people quietly doing good work in local government and their communities,” Dr Cloete said. “These stories are often overshadowed by the dominant negative narrative, yet they offer important lessons about what is possible.”
Looking beyond what is broken
The significance of the book lies in what it chooses to focus on. While acknowledging the challenges facing local government, Dr Cloete’s work documents people who are finding ways to lead ethically, solve problems, and serve their communities in difficult environments.
He says these stories matter because they challenge the assumption that local government can only be understood through its failures. “That is exactly what I wanted to change. I wanted to challenge the overwhelmingly negative narrative about local government and celebrate and spotlight the men and women who are making a difference.”
The people featured in the book extend beyond elected councillors and municipal officials. They include citizens, civil society actors, business representatives, and others contributing to the functioning of their communities, reinforcing the idea that local governance is shaped by more than what happens inside municipal offices.
This broader perspective was highlighted by
Zanoxolo Futwa, Provincial Executive Officer of the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) in the Free State, who said the book creates space for practitioners to contribute to a conversation that is often dominated by external perceptions of local government.
“One of the powerful things about this book is that it then helps the dialogue to be honest about what works, what doesn’t work, and the hidden stories that are a foundation to a very powerful resilience that sometimes we don’t notice,” Futwa said.
Senqu Municipality, which inspired Dr Cloete’s initial curiosity, provides one such example. Futwa pointed to its ability to produce strong financial results despite operating in a rural environment with limited resources, while also raising wider questions about whether municipalities facing very different circumstances should be expected to operate within exactly the same systems and expectations.
The example opens up a deeper conversation about how South Africa’s local government system is designed, funded, and supported, particularly as the country reflects on three decades of democratic local government.
For Dr Cloete, however, the lessons emerging from the podcast are not confined to institutional design. Across his conversations, one question repeatedly revealed something about the people behind the work: “Why do you do what you do?”
The responses pointed to what Dr Cloete describes as a common thread of selfless service and a strong sense of purpose. In his view, effective local governance therefore depends not only on policies, structures, and systems, but also on the values and leadership of the people responsible for making those systems work.
That understanding also extends the responsibility for good governance beyond government itself. “We are moving from government to governance, where citizens are not simply recipients of services but co-creators of the communities and societies in which they live,” Dr Cloete said. “Leaders cannot act as if they have all the answers; they need to create the space for citizens to actively participate, as envisaged by our Constitution.”
This becomes particularly relevant as citizens prepare to choose their municipal representatives. Dr Cloete describes South Africa’s democracy as representative, participatory, and constitutional, with each dimension providing a different avenue through which citizens can exercise their rights and responsibilities.
He says active citizenship can involve participating in municipal affairs, holding leaders accountable, contributing ideas and solutions, and speaking up even when it would be easier to remain silent. It also requires leaders to recognise that communities have knowledge and experience that can contribute to solving complex local problems.
This approach has also resonated with Nedbank, which supported the publication as part of its broader aim of using its financial expertise to contribute to individuals, businesses, and society. “Local government is actually where communities experience government firsthand, and we decided to be part of this because we want to make sure that we bring together those that are in this industry and share the stories, the good stories,” said
Monei Seleho, Head: Public Sector at Nedbank Commercial Banking.
Dr Cloete hopes readers will see that better governance is not an abstract ideal, but something already being demonstrated in different places and by different people. “I hope they learn what is possible,” he said. “The stories in this book illustrate that there is a different way and that better local governance is possible.”
As voters prepare to cast their ballots in November, 101 Local Governance Lessons from the Great Governance ZA Podcast offers a body of experiences to consider alongside the familiar debates about what has gone wrong. Its message is not that the challenges facing local government should be overlooked, but that understanding what works may be just as important to changing what does not.
For Dr Cloete, documenting those experiences is ultimately about making their lessons available to others. The book invites readers to look beyond the failures that dominate public discourse and consider what can be learned, adapted and applied from the people already showing that another way is possible.