Coalitions bills in the pipeline, but not before 2024 elections

The government hopes to have local government regulations ready by the next municipal poll in 2026

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Proposed legislation aimed at regulating coalitions and alleviating the chaos in South Africa’s hung municipalities is not likely to be passed by the time national and provincial elections take place next year.

The Municipal Structures Amendment Bill drafted by the cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) ministry is set to go before parliament soon, but will only pass the legislative process long after the coming vote.

As a result, the ongoing motions of no confidence which have seen mayors regularly ousted in hung councils around the country are set to continue until close to the next local government elections in 2026.

Last week Cogta minister Thembi Nkadimeng said in response to parliamentary questions that the bill would introduce a two year period in which no confidence motions could not be brought.

Their frequency would also be limited, while parties would be required to commit to formal coalition agreements with fixed time frames in an attempt to create stability in hung councils which have been plagued by instability since 2016.

Loyiso Jantjies, stakeholder relations manager in Cogta deputy minister Parks Tau’s office, said regulations limiting the frequency of no confidence and other measures were contained in the amendment bill drafted by the department.

Jantjies said it was unlikely that the amendment bill — which was focused solely on local government — would be passed by the time parliament rose due to the lengthy process involved.

 “We will be guided by those processes as to when does it land on the debate calendar for the NCOP (National Council of Provinces) and Parliament,” Jantjies said.

While there may have been an expectation that the bill “was going to be focused on the national and provincial elections”, this was not the case.

“The target is that by the time we reach the local government elections, there should have been clarity from all parties having participated in parliament. That will be the barometer as to how we proceed from there,” Jantjies said.

Democratic Alliance chief whip Siviwe Gwarube has brought two private members bills before parliament aimed at amending the constitution to allow for regulation of no confidence motions and other measures.

The first, the Constitution 19th Amendment Bill, which aims to limit motions of no confidence by solidifying the conditions under which they can be moved, at national and provincial level, had its first reading last month.

However, it  was not well received by MPs from the ANC and the Economic Freedom Fighters during the subsequent debate.

EFF MP Hlengiwe Mkhalipi said the party rejected the bill, which she described as “anti-democratic” as it “seeks to limit the democratic process.”

ANC MP Nomathemba Maseko-Jele said there were already legislative processes underway, along with the national dialogue on coalitions led by deputy president Paul Mashatile.

Gwarube told the Mail & Guardian this week that the 19th amendment bill was currently before the justice portfolio committee and the house was likely to vote on it before the end of the year.

She said the bill should make it through parliament’s scheduling, but was likely to be shot down by the majority party and its allies.

“The greatest danger to the bill is that if the ANC does what they usually do, which is to vote against any private member’s bill that comes before them,” Gwarube said.

“We are seven months away from an election and we are not even thinking about how to deal with the very real prospect of a national government coalition, or at least coalitions in some of the provinces.

“Over and above increasing political maturity and lessons learned at local government level, we still need to have something in place which is enforceable, otherwise we run the risk of destabilising provinces – and perhaps even national government.”

The national dialogue process run by Mashatile is meant to table a proposed framework for regulating local government coalitions to parliament by November, after it has been discussed and endorsed by the organisations which participated in the summit he convened in August.

Mashatile’s spokesperson, Vukani Mde, said it was “hard to gauge” whether they would be able to meet the November deadline as the framework document was with the participants for comment.

“We are now in limbo and are waiting for everybody to come back and say they have approved. Only then will the process re-gather momentum,” Mde said.

The process driven by Mashatile would not interfere with what was already taking place in parliament. It was “unlikely” that it would have been concluded by the time the elections took place.

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