Wavering ethical leadership and local governance: KwaZulu-Natal Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs

Upon democratisation, the ANC-led government set out to ensure coordination between the three spheres of government. This would be done to ensure that there is a flowing, well set out structure of governance to ensure efficient service delivery. The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) is a by-product of this realisation, as per its constitutional mandate, COGTA is responsible for ensuring that there is coordination, support and effective citizen participation in local government. This paper explores the advent of corruption in the Department of CoGTA and how this is affecting local governance in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. Through the use of a mixed methods research technique, data obtained through interviews with officials from the Department of CoGTA and public opinion data spanning 17 years through the Human Sciences Research Council's South African Social Attitudes Survey data on satisfaction with local government and trust in local government in the province of KwaZulu- Natal is used to show that corruption in this Department is particularly harmful to local governance and that citizens are realising this through their dissatisfaction with the state of local government.