Co-operative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) minister Thembi Nkadimeng has introduced for public comment a stringent bill that seeks to overhaul the country’s local government laws by making it difficult to remove executive mayors, speakers and chief whips.
It also raises the threshold for political parties to be represented in council.
The Local Government: Municipal Structures Amendment Bill of 2023, which was published in the Government Gazette on Tuesday, calls for the election or removal from office of municipal office bearers to be conducted by a show of hands rather than secret ballot. “This is done to avert a situation whereby corrupt activities influence voting in council meetings,” the bill states.
The bill also seeks to strengthen hung local councils by calling for written and “binding coalition agreements” between parties.
The SA Local Government Association (Salga), which represents the country’s 257 municipalities, the National Treasury and provincial departments responsible for local government were consulted on the proposed amendments.
The bill proposes that in municipalities with mayoral executive system, where no party has a majority of seats, should be changed “to a collective executive system within a prescribed period”.
The bill also proposed that political parties should obtain a minimum 1% of the valid votes cast in an election to qualify for a seat in the council. “If the 1% threshold is not met, the party concerned must be eliminated from all further calculations for the allocation of seats on the council.
“This will limit the number of parties allocated seats in council ... thus enabling fewer parties to form stable coalitions” and thus decreasing the likelihood of political instability in the political system.
The bill comes as several councils, including Gauteng’s three metros of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane, are rocked by political instability, with represented political parties playing musical chairs after the 2016 local government elections failed to produce a clear winner. The frequent changes of municipal office bearers have caused disruptions in the delivery of basic services to communities.
“Despite being a relative common occurrence in SA, coalition governments have not become institutionalised [that is] there are no rules or guidelines for coalition governments. The high number of hung councils has highlighted the need to strengthen the guidance on the formation and management of coalition councils,” the bill reads.
“There has been also a huge outcry for a framework or guidelines or legislation that will guide the formation and management of coalition governments within the local government sphere.”
In the Johannesburg metro, Kabelo Gwamanda, from the Al Jama-ah party, which holds only three of the 270 seats in the council, is the ninth mayor of the city since the 2016 local government elections.
The past mayors of the metro include Parks Tau (2016), Herman Mashaba (2016/19), Geoff Makhubo (2020/21), Mpho Moerane (2021), Jolidee Matongo (2021), Mpho Phalatse (2021/22), Dada Morero (2022) and Thapelo Amad (2023).
According to the proposed legislation, a municipal council, by resolution taken by a show of hands, may remove its executive mayor, deputy executive mayor, whip, speaker, one or all members of the executive mayoral committee, “provided that two years have passed” since their election.
The council, however, may remove the office bearers from office at any time on the grounds of “a serious violation of the constitution or the law, serious misconduct or inability to perform the functions of office”, the bill reads.
It states that a municipality in which no political party obtains a majority of seats when the council is declared elected or after a by-election must be changed to a type of municipality with a “collective executive system” by the Cogta MEC within 30 days after elections.
Members of the public are invited to submit written comments to the national Cogta office in Pretoria before July 5 2024.
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