"I believe that in a long term we are going to do away with them some of these municipalities because they are not adding value in terms of what has to be done," says Shiceka.

Local government is the heart and soul of service delivery but it is the very sphere that has failed many communities.  Widespread service delivery protests, bear testimony to this. Now government says it is moving towards removing hurdles - blaming rigid laws.

Shiceka says: "We are dealing with an issue of amending all laws that are impacting on local government. We have identified 30 of them. Equally we have identified about 350 provisions on the laws, we want to open up the system."

Meanwhile, a commission to look into whether provinces remain or are done away with will be set up.  The issue was discussed at the African National Congress local government summit last week.