The South African government has long sought the idea of becoming a capable, developmental, and ethical state as the ultimate ambition to meet the country's developmental targets as reflected in the National Development Plan. However, the country has not been able to materialise the capable developmental state aspirations because of the overwhelming capacity deficits in the local government system to adequately deliver social and economic development services to the millions of South Africans languishing in poverty and unemployment. While the national and provincial governments have robust capacities, the local government sphere remains weak and underperforming due to inherent incapacity to plan, coordinate and deliver developmental outcomes. These weaknesses resulted in the government establishing the new District Development Model, which promises to create the required capacity at the district municipal level to coordinate and