New local government bill could address council instability

By Rebone Tau

The coalition bill, known as the Local Government: Municipal Structures Amendment Bill, 2024, was gazetted and introduced for public comment on 21 May 2024 by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA).

The closing date for public submissions was 31 July 2024.

The main reason for introducing this bill was the instability we have seen in many municipalities, particularly the continuous motions of no confidence against mayors. These instabilities delay service delivery, which means ordinary citizens are the ones who suffer. Coalition politics have often been reduced to a game of numbers, largely because there are no clear and enforceable coalition agreements.

One of the key proposals included in the bill is the introduction of legally binding coalition agreements, which would force political parties to stop reducing coalitions to a numbers game. The bill also proposes greater transparency around coalition agreements. If we look at the coalitions currently in place, citizens know very little about the agreements that hold these governments together.

As a result, they are unable to assess whether coalitions exist to serve the interests of residents or those of politicians. When a motion of no confidence is brought forward, the public often has no idea what the original coalition agreement was.

All people see is a motion being tabled, sometimes supported by parties that had initially backed the administration. For example, we saw how the Democratic Alliance (DA) was removed from all the Gauteng metros by parties that had supported it following the 2021 municipal elections.

The bill also seeks to place restrictions on motions of no confidence, which is something we have seen playing out repeatedly. In Johannesburg, for example, the African National Congress’ (ANC) mayor Dada Morero has faced at least four motions of no confidence. The first was in May/June 2025, followed by motions in October 2025, December 2025, and February 2026. Three of these motions were brought forward by Al Jama-ah and one by the DA.

Despite this, he survived all of them. Al Jama-ah, with close to 1% of the vote, has been able to secure two mayoral positions in the City of Johannesburg since 2021. The last motion of no confidence was reportedly linked to negotiations that would have resulted in the ANC receiving the Deputy Mayor position.

One has to ask why, after those negotiations, the motion did not proceed. There is clearly more to some of these motions than what the public is told.

On the other hand, in Ekurhuleni, Mayor Nkosindiphile Xhakaza conducted an assessment of his Mayoral Committee, which led to some political parties walking away from the coalition arrangement. The initial coalition had been led by the African Independent Congress (AIC) under then Mayor Sivuyile Ngodwana in 2023 after the Democratic Alliance was removed from office. When Xhakaza came into office in 2024, he did not immediately make changes to the Mayoral Committee. This was a fair approach, as it allowed him to bring stability and assess his team before making decisions, rather than being seen as targeting individuals.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), which received 13.6% of the vote, were able through negotiations with the AIC to secure the position of Speaker and five Mayoral Committee positions. This was despite the AIC receiving less than 1% of the vote while holding the mayoral position.

After Xhakaza reshuffled his Mayoral Committee, we saw parties such as ActionSA and the EFF reject the positions allocated to them by the ANC in Ekurhuleni. This created further instability in the city. The EFF had more seats in Ekurhuleni than in any other metro, yet to this day we do not know what informed its decision to reject those positions. In Johannesburg and Tshwane, the party holds fewer seats, which raises further questions. This is what happens when small parties become kingmakers. We saw a similar situation in Johannesburg when the Patriotic Alliance (PA) played a key role in the removal of a DA mayor during the administration of Dr. Mpho Phalatse.

In the City of Ekurhuleni, the budget was only passed on 23 June 2026, despite municipalities having until the end of June to approve their budgets. There were extensive negotiations taking place behind the scenes until the eleventh hour, when the Democratic Alliance came on board to support the budget.

One thing that DA Federal Chairperson and Gauteng Provincial Leader Solly Msimanga stated was that the DA had “forced the ANC to accept major reforms in Ekurhuleni to prevent an EFF administration.” This is significant given that the current Gauteng MEC for Finance, Nkululeko Dunga, is also the provincial leader of the EFF.

When one looks at some of the reforms that were agreed to, they are likely to benefit both residents and investors. Property rates increases were reduced to 1.5%, which could make Ekurhuleni one of the most affordable municipalities in terms of property rates and taxes. It may also become one of the most attractive municipalities for investment. While noting that the DA and ActionSA are not part of the governing coalition in Ekurhuleni, their support for the budget demonstrates that they put the people of Ekurhuleni first instead of engaging in political battles that could negatively affect residents. The only major party that did not support the budget was the EFF. It is difficult to ignore the possibility that the rejection of the two positions previously offered to the party played a role in its stance on the budget.

Parliament will need to process the coalition bill with urgency if we are to avoid a repeat of what has happened in many municipalities since the 2021 local government elections. Service delivery should remain at the centre of local government. We need to see more stable municipalities after the 2026 local government elections. Without a proper framework for coalition governance, we may eventually see the same instability emerge at national level.

Coalition politics are clearly here to stay, and we need to adapt accordingly. That means moving away from the mentality of kingmaking for its own sake and ensuring that coalition arrangements are centred on the interests of citizens rather than the ambitions of politicians.

Rebone Tau is a political commentator and author of The Rise and Fall of the ANCYL. She is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Pan-African Thought & Conversation (IPATC) at the University of Johannesburg. She writes in her personal capacity.