It will no longer be easy for political parties to pull out from coalition agreements or call for frivolous motions of no confidence when they no longer see eye to eye with their allies.
This if the proposed amendments to the Municipal Structures Act sees the light of day. The move is aimed at solidifying coalitions in the local government sphere by creating a law which will make sure that governing pacts in municipalities are stable.
The amendments being mulled also aim to drastically reduce the number of political parties to strengthen governance in local municipalities. “The amendments being suggested to the Municipal Structures Act are looking at catering for coalitions. We call it the coalitions bill.
The Municipal Structures Act has been produced as a second draft. It is an attempt to try and regulate through legislation coalitions. As we speak, there is no regulatory framework for coalitions in the country and this bill seeks to do exactly that,” Lance Joel, the South African Local Government Association (Salga) chief operating officer explained in an interview with Sunday World.
Joel also said studies that have been conducted have also shown that smaller parties are the biggest winners in coalition governments.
“Parties who have one or two seats get to govern in a municipality by getting a seat of a
mayor or speaker. This despite them having not garnered sufficient support,” he said.
Joel also said while the idea was to reduce the number of smaller political formations, the aim was not to exclude.
The bill also wants to foster inclusivity, for instance, where there was no outright winner, parties that garnered sufficient seats in council can form part of the executive
decision making process.
Frivolous motions often brought by political rivals will also be a thing of the past should the bill be signed into law.
The bill proposes among other things that, a mayor, speaker, or council whip cannot be removed unless they have served for two years in the council. This means, it will be part of the coalitions act to prohibit parties from attempting to remove office bearers through spurious motions.
“In some cases, you will find that a motion of no confidence is brought against a mayor. But there’s no sufficient support for the motion and the mayor remains. It becomes an unnecessary waste of resources,” Joel said.
The coalitions bill also proposes that there must be sufficient space for political parties post an election to put together a coalition instead of the process being rushed.
Currently, parties should form a government within 14 days after an election has been held. Salga believes the bill would have been an act before 2026 municipal elections to lay the foundation for new governments in various municipalities.
The 2021 local government elections brought about 70 hung councils in the country
which led to a back-to-back horse-trading as parties were vying to form governing pacts.
CAPTION:
