Nearly 90% of the R470 billion South Africans owe their municipalities has been outstanding for more than 90 days. Terence Corrigan from the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) calls it politically uncollectable. A new report authored by Terence lays out the scale of the challenge facing South African municipalities: about a quarter of municipalities work, some can be fixed, and some should be wound up entirely. Terence tells Gabriel Makin about his research and the history of the South African local governance system. They also discuss water mafias, the assassinations reshaping municipal politics, and the IRR’s triage for reform, including the most radical idea: scrapping the councils that can never work.