With the Municipal Structures Amendment Bill, dubbed the Coalition Bill, unlikely to become law before new municipal governments are formed following the local government elections after November, voters may ultimately be left to pressure political parties to adhere to its key principles.
The Bill has been sitting with the President just three months before the elections, an indication that lawmakers are not yet ready to submit to the discipline of coalition governance, preferring instead to keep their options open for backroom deal-making.
The Bill seeks to bring order to a local government landscape increasingly characterised by unstable coalitions, with mayors and municipal executives repeatedly ousted as political alliances collapse.
One of its key proposals is that where a municipality currently operates under a mayoral executive system, but no party wins a majority of council seats, the MEC for Local Government would have to convert it to a collective executive system within 30 days of the council being declared elected, or following a relevant by-election.
Coalition parties would also be required to enter into a legally binding agreement, which would have to be made public.
The Bill would also prevent councils from removing the speaker, whip, members of the executive committee, executive mayor or deputy mayor during their first two years in office, except under specified circumstances.
Passing the bill into law before the commencement of the election is also impractical considering the various stages including public participation that the bill still needs to go through.
These are the views of governance experts as Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) this week considered how to reconcile the Bill with existing Private Members’ Bills which contains similar provisions.
Despite having been passed by Cabinet, the Bill has not yet been formally referred to the committee.
"Since 2016 we have witnessed a chaos in municipalities where there was no outright winner, particularly in metros such as Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela Bay and Tshwane where there was a substantial amount of political changes," said public policy, governance and political analyst Hlumelo Xaba.
"Cogta's intention to pass the bill into law before the commencement of the election is impractical considering the various stages that the bill still needs to go through taking into consideration the fact that the LGE are in less than three months," he said.
The Bill is being processed for consideration by both the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces.
Research and education officer at the International Labour Research and Information Group, Dr Dale McKinley, said the delay was disappointing after years of calls for legislation to regulate coalition governments.
“First of all, I think everyone is very disappointed that it has taken this long, after many, many years, to the fact that the legislation, the Bill, is clearly not going to be passed before the local government elections in November.
“It's good that this debate is taking place, that the public is now aware that these things are in motion. But without the legal sanction, without the legal power, it's going to be left up to the voters to push these things and to make sure that the political parties try to adhere at least, or are pressured into adhering to, most of these provisions,” he said.
McKinley said many of these reforms had long been demanded by civil society organisations, ratepayers and other stakeholders.
“So what this means is that voters must know their power and know that they're the ones that are gonna call the shots, who they put into local government, and then what the pressure that they can make on the parties to basically stop playing politics and start governing.
“It's not the best-case scenario because without the legislation, it makes things a bit trickier, but in some ways it is contingent upon our democratic system to function properly and for voters to realise that nobody's gonna be coming to the rescue in a Bill necessarily because it's not there,” he said.
Director of Surgetower Associates Management Consultancy, Siseko Maposa, said the difficulties in passing the Coalition Bill appeared to stem from its complicated legislative history - being an amalgamation of private members' bills and Cogta's work, now sitting with the president just three months before elections.
“That alone may indicate that politicians themselves are not yet ready to submit to the discipline of coalition governance, preferring instead to keep their options open for backroom deal-making.”
Maposa cautioned against treating the Coalition Bill as a cure-all.
“What voters must understand is that South Africa is entering an epoch of coalition government, and no legislative instrument can protect us from its inherent haphazardness. Even if passed, the Bill would only be a procedural framework, not a guarantee of service delivery or stable governance.
“Simply put, our only saving grace is active participation. Voters must demand parties declare non-negotiables and coalition partners before elections and hold the elected accountable afterwards. That is our real saving grace.”
ntsikelelo.qoyo@nationalmg.co.za