Delays in the Coalition Bill reflect a lack of urgency in tackling local government problems

The results of the 2016 local government elections (LGE) led to the advent of rapid coalition governance in metropolitan municipalities. The ANC lost its outright majority in four of the country’s eight metros, leading to these metros becoming hung councils, which necessitated them being governed through coalitions. Coalitions weren’t an unprecedented phenomenon in South Africa’s local government political landscape before the 2016 elections. However, it was the magnitude of the metros that were previously ANC strongholds that catalysed public discourse on coalition governments, including the need for a coherent framework that will regulate the formation and functionality of these governments in municipalities.

The Municipal Structures Amendment Bill (Coalition Bill) was proposed as a response mechanism to the crisis confronting hung councils. Although the Bill was first introduced in 2024, it still hasn’t materialised into a tangible object that can be used to solve the instability engulfing coalition governments, particularly in the metros. Part of what the Bill seeks to achieve is the curtailment of motions of no confidence against mayors, speakers, and chief whips. Since the 2016 local elections the City of Johannesburg has had 10 mayoral changes, and Nelson Mandela Bay and the City of Tshwane have had six. These political changes often permeate the administration of the municipalities, resulting in service delivery backlogs and bottlenecks.

The delayed processing of the bill reveals the government’s inherent lack of urgency in solving the challenges that confront local government. Municipalities are often neglected and find themselves on the receiving end of the crises that affect the country on a broader scale. For example, there are longstanding contentions surrounding the funding model of municipalities yet there have been few to no interventions aimed at resolving this issue. As a result, many municipalities across the country continue to find themselves in dire financial positions that have subsequently led to poor basic service delivery. Similarly, the stalling of the Bill risks prolonging the persistent instability in hung municipalities beyond the 4 November elections. 

The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs’ (CoGTA) desire for the Bill to be passed before the elections is impractical given all the stages the Bill still needs to pass before it is signed into law by the President. 

One of the factors underlying the unlikelihood of the Coalition Bill’s enactment before the elections is the preoccupation with election campaigns by political parties that are supposed to be at the forefront of scrutinising the Bill before it advances to the next stages of the legislative process. This will hinder the Bill from receiving the attention it needs to have an impact once signed into law. 

Second, the complexity of the amendments in the Bill need a rigorous public participation process that will give the public a clear understanding of the proposed legislation and how it will shape things in the affected councils. The limited timeline that Parliament has at its disposal to facilitate this process before the election makes it impossible to have adequate public participation.

Continued coalition chaos beyond the 2026 elections

One of the propositions in the Bill is the timeframe for constituting municipal governance structures. It proposes that the timeframe be adjusted from 14 to 30 days to give political parties enough time to deliberate and reach agreements upon which the coalition will be premised. The Bill also proposes that coalition agreements between political parties be submitted to the municipal manager and the MEC for CoGTA and for the agreement to be made public in the provincial gazette of the affected municipality.

The absence of a coherent legislative framework that regulates coalitions in municipalities implies that there will be a perpetuation of the chaos in hung municipalities over the past 10 years. This, coupled with the fragile nature of coalitions in their current form, will not only lead to heightened volatility in local government, and will also weaken government and service delivery. DM