Let’s not tiptoe around it — local government in South Africa has become a killing field. In the past five years alone, 37 municipal officials and 59 councillors have been murdered across the country, according to official data compiled by ProtectionWeb, released in January 2025.
These statistics are not merely numbers; they represent a deeply disturbing signal of the erosion of democratic governance and public accountability at the very foundation of our state.
Sam Busa