South Africa’s coalition-riddled municipalities sit at the center of a new legislative push, one that could determine whether local governments hold together or fracture under the pressure of shifting political alliances.
On Thursday, the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs received its first substantive briefing on the Local Government: Municipal Structures Amendment Bill of 2026, known informally as the Municipal Coalitions Bill. For residents in municipalities where no single party holds an outright majority, the Bill’s proposals carry direct consequences for the stability of the councils that deliver their services.
The core of the legislation is straightforward. Coalition agreements would have to be written down, submitted to both the Municipal Manager and the provincial Member of the Executive Council responsible for local government, and published in the Provincial Gazette. The intent is to make the terms of coalition governance visible and enforceable, rather than leaving them as informal arrangements that can be quietly abandoned.
Beyond transparency, the Bill addresses the mechanics of municipal formation. The window for establishing governance structures would extend from 14 to 30 days, giving parties more time to conclude negotiations before formal governance begins. A separate provision would cap the period during which motions to remove municipal office bearers can be brought to 12 months. That limit is designed to stop the rapid leadership churn that has destabilized some councils, while preserving the ability to remove officials on grounds such as financial misconduct or criminal conviction.
Meanwhile, the Bill would strengthen Municipal Public Audit Committees and set clearer procedures for continuity when speakers or executive mayors vacate their posts. Both changes speak to a pattern that has troubled governance in coalition-heavy municipalities: frequent leadership shifts that leave administrative functions in limbo.
One notable absence from the Bill is a set of provisions that appeared in an earlier draft. Those clauses addressed electoral thresholds for political representation and eligibility for various posts, but were removed before the Bill reached Parliament after the Office of the Chief State Law Adviser raised constitutional concerns. Committee Chairperson Dr Zweli Mkhize made clear that the removal was not the end of the matter. “It cannot just disappear because it did not make it into the Bill,” he said, signaling the committee’s intention to revisit the threshold question during deliberations.
Parliament’s Constitutional and Legal Services Office briefed the committee on how the Bill must be classified under the Constitution, either as a Section 75 or Section 76 Bill, a distinction that shapes the legislative timelines that apply. The preferred approach is to tag it as a Section 76 Bill, which affects the provinces and follows standard processing periods. Under the Constitution, Section 76 Bills carry no fixed deadline. In the Sixth Parliament, such Bills took an average of 34 months to complete. Joint Rule 245 now requires both Houses to process Section 76 Bills within 30 months of introduction, though extensions can be agreed. At that pace, the Bill will not be finalized before the next local government elections.
The committee has not yet begun examining the Bill’s substance clause by clause. Mkhize said members will first develop a framework setting out the committee’s process, including timeframes and a public-participation strategy. The secretariat has been tasked with preparing that framework for the committee’s consideration.
For communities living under unstable coalition councils, the open question is whether the public-participation phase will give them a genuine voice in shaping the rules that govern their municipalities, or whether the Bill’s long processing timeline will push meaningful change past the next election cycle entirely. Further information on the Bill’s progress is available at https://www.parliament.gov.za/press-releases/media-statement-cogta-committee-set-out-next-steps-processing-coalitions-bill.