DA publishes Municipal Threshold Bill for public comment

Issued by George Michalakis MP – DA Chief Whip in Parliament
26 Jan 2025 in News

Note to Editors: Please see attached soundbites in English and Afrikaans by George Michalakis MP

In its ongoing efforts to stabilise coalition governments across the country, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has this week published for public comment the Local Government: Municipal Structures Second Amendment Bill, 2025.  This Bill will seek to add stability to coalitions on local government level by adding an electoral threshold for political parties to qualify for a seat on municipal councils.

The current electoral rules for municipal councils have led to a plethora of smaller – one person – parties, who obtain a fraction of the votes in a municipality, thereby becoming king makers in forming coalitions.  This has destabilised entire governments which, in turn, collapse service delivery to the very people who voted these parties in.

Coalition governments have become the new norm in South African politics, and we cannot shy away from setting the rules of the game to ensure that service delivery to ordinary South Africans is protected against political brinkmanship.

In practice, some of these parties gain a seat without even first obtaining the requisite votes needed for such seat (namely, the seat quota). Instead, such seats are obtained through the next highest remainder calculations.  In effect, these parties take up seats in municipal councils without having received enough votes, and the confidence of enough residents, to justify them.

The DA’s proposed Bill seeks to insert an electoral threshold into the calculation and allocation of seats in local councils so that parties must first obtain enough valid votes to achieve at least one seat on the municipal council before they are entitled to be considered for additional seats under the highest remainder calculation.

These amendments will ensure that king maker parties are no longer able to strike deals with larger parties for lucrative positions in the executive in exchange for propping-up unstable coalition governments.  Instead, parties will have to engage in good faith and form workable coalitions, without relying on one man shows.

In addition, the Bill also seeks to extend the period within which an executive mayor, speaker and whip should be elected in council, providing that such elections must take place within 30 days after the council’s election, instead of the current 14 days.  This will allow more time for parties intending to form coalition governments to engage with each other and come to a stable, long-term solution, that is best for South Africans.

The DA remains committed to ensuring that the new era of coalition politics leaves no South African behind, that coalition governments are stable, and that residents get the services they need.

Interested parties and institutions are invited to submit written representations on the proposed content of the draft Bill to the Speaker of the National Assembly within 30 days of publication. Representations can be delivered to the Speaker, New Assembly Building, Parliament Street, Cape Town; mailed to the Speaker, PO Box 15, Cape Town, 8000; or emailed to speaker@parliament.gov.za and copied to legislation@da.org.za.