SACN unveils 2026-2031 plan to turn reform into delivery

Cabinet’s approval of the Revised White Paper on Local Government 2026 in September set the policy direction. Now the South African Cities Network (SACN) has answered with its 2026-2031 strategy, a five-year plan designed to turn reform into delivery across the country’s urban centers.

SACN, a collaborative body of South African cities and partners, argues that the critical test is not the formulation of reform but its implementation: whether changes strengthen municipal institutions, improve inter-governmental coordination, and enhance residents’ experience of city life. The strategy aims to bridge that implementation gap by providing credible evidence, fostering shared learning among cities, and facilitating practical collaboration across levels of government.

The stakes are considerable. South Africa’s cities serve as concentrated hubs for investment, opportunity, and essential public services, yet their potential remains constrained by persistent weaknesses in governance, financial stability, infrastructure, and service delivery.

The White Paper calls for capable local government entities that can fulfill their developmental mandates. SACN’s strategy complements this national agenda by focusing on the integrated urban system, strengthening effective governance, ensuring accountability, promoting financial sustainability, and improving coordination across all three spheres of government. The network recognizes that a uniform approach will not work; metros, intermediate cities, and smaller urban centers each require differentiated, place-responsive strategies.

These capabilities are viewed as foundational economic priorities, not merely administrative ones. Sound spatial planning, reliable infrastructure, integrated transport systems, and consistent provision of basic services are necessary to attract investment and foster enterprise. When cities are capable and well-governed, they lower business costs, broaden access to opportunity, and support more inclusive growth.

The Strategic Business Plan for 2026-2031 is structured around a practical model of implementation. It requires generating and using credible urban evidence, enabling cities to learn from one another, convening government and urban partners around shared priorities, and translating that knowledge into actionable decisions, investments, and interventions. By linking evidence, peer learning, and partnership, SACN intends to help cities address immediate failures while anticipating complex pressures from climate change, infrastructure deficits, inequality, and rapid urbanization.

Meanwhile, the strategy’s priorities come into focus at Urban Festival 2026, scheduled for October 26 to 30 under the theme Regenerating the City. The festival will convene key stakeholders, including the department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, the Cities Support Programme, the South African Local Government Association, the UN-Habitat SA Country Office, and Metropolis. Policymakers, municipal practitioners, researchers, businesses, and community members will gather to share evidence, test ideas, and build partnerships ahead of World Cities Day on October 31. The full strategy is available at https://www.businesslive.co.za/politics/2026-10-21-south-african-cities-network-sets-five-year-plan-to-turn-reform-into-delivery/.

For SACN, regeneration means more than economic revitalization. It involves strengthening communities, improving management and planning, protecting natural resources, and building adaptive institutions. Success will not be measured solely by regulatory compliance, but by the delivery of reliable services, the functionality of infrastructure, the accessibility of opportunities, overall resilience, and the renewal of public confidence in urban governance. Over the next five years, SACN is positioned as a knowledge partner, learning network, and convening platform, ensuring urban reform is informed by data, accelerated through shared learning, and delivered through collaboration.

Whether the strategy can convert Cabinet-approved reform into measurable improvements in city governance remains the open question the next five years must answer.