From 26 April to 1 May 2026, the New South Institute was represented in a study programme organised by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) in Berlin and Brandenburg, titled Manage Efficiently — Govern Responsibly: Good Governance and Modern Administration at the Local Level.

The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung is one of Germany’s major political foundations, affiliated with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). It operates in over 100 countries, working on democracy promotion, rule of law, and governance reform. The foundation has previously supported NSI’s research work, including as a funder of the Government in Numbers series, which examines the state of South Africa’s public service through data-driven analysis.

The delegation brought together South African elected officials and practitioners: Queen Xulu, Mayor of the uMlalazi Local Municipality; Ayanda Allie, Member of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (BOSA); Mlungisi Mabaso, Member of the Mayoral Committee for Human Settlements in the City of Johannesburg; and Nicki Brits, senior representative of the Inkatha Freedom Party. The programme was coordinated by Johannes Lutz and accompanied by Gregor Jaecke and Christiaan Endres of the KAS South Africa office — whose familiarity with both contexts proved essential to the quality of the exchange throughout the week.

Over five days, the delegation met with a range of officials, practitioners, and civil society representatives working across different levels of German government. In Berlin, sessions covered the federal structure and the role of municipalities within it (Berlin State Agency for Civic Education); interest representation and local self-government (the Association of German Cities, Deutscher Städtetag); Berlin’s ongoing administrative reform under the new State Organisation Act (Berlin Senate Chancellery); and public innovation through digitalisation and AI (CityLAB Berlin). The delegation also met with a CDU parliamentary group leader in the Berlin House of Representatives and visited the Rathaus Schöneberg to discuss district-level governance.

In Potsdam and the surrounding Brandenburg region, the programme examined energy and utilities governance through a visit to Energie und Wasser Potsdam; citizen-facing service reform at the city’s citizens’ service centre; and civic participation mechanisms. A session at the Brandenburg Ministry of the Interior presented comparative models of municipal governance. An informal dinner with a member of the Potsdam City Council provided a frank perspective on the day-to-day workings of local politics and bureaucracy.

The final day took the delegation into rural Brandenburg. A breakfast meeting with the Mayor of Grünheide and his team addressed the administrative challenges and revenue implications of hosting Tesla’s European Gigafactory — including the redistribution mechanisms that channel a significant share of the municipality’s new revenues to neighbouring towns and the regional district (Landkreis). A visit to Schloss Trebnitz explored how a rural education and meeting centre has built financial sustainability through its own programming, alongside EU rural development funds, while grappling with questions of social cohesion and civic participation in depopulating areas. A meeting with the Mayor of Wriezen addressed the limits of municipal governance in towns facing demographic decline and growing support for populist parties. The programme also included a visit to the Seelow Heights Memorial, commemorating one of the final major battles of the Second World War on German soil.

The exchange was structured around a consistent set of questions relevant to both contexts: how local governments build administrative capacity under fiscal pressure; how oversight and accountability mechanisms function in practice; how municipalities manage relations with higher levels of government; and how civil servants are recruited, managed, and retained in ways that balance political responsiveness with institutional integrity.

Germany’s municipal system offers no direct template for South Africa — the institutional histories and constitutional arrangements are too different for that. But the week illustrated how governance challenges that appear local are often structural, and how practitioners in both countries are grappling with versions of the same underlying questions. Those conversations are precisely what NSI’s comparative work is designed to sustain.