South Africa ties city funding to performance, boosting accountability and infrastructure investment.

South Africa has launched reforms in its eight largest cities to improve municipal service delivery by linking performance-based incentives to the urban development financing grant. The National Treasury, backed by President Cyril Ramaphosa and Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, is requiring metros to ring-fence revenue from essential services into professionally managed utilities to boost accountability and reduce grant dependence. Over R19.2 billion will be reallocated over the medium term for infrastructure maintenance and expansion, contingent on meeting performance targets. The initiative addresses years of financial mismanagement, corruption, and poor service delivery, with support from Business Leadership South Africa, though implementation challenges persist.