Guest; Goodenough Mashego -Independent Political Analyst

South Africa is currently in a transitionary phase where the ruling party no longer holds majorities in a number of metropolitan, district or local councils across South Africa. This has resulted in many coalition governments being formed at local government level. The 2024 National elections have also resulted in the ruling party slipping below 50% of the votes. What this means for South Africa is that coalition governments will now be the ‘‘new norm’’, at a national, provincial and local government level. Parties and Independent Candidates will have to come together and form workable coalitions for the good of the Republic of South Africa.

However, the current issue with coalition governments at local government level is that a high number of political parties are needed to join together in order to gain a majority in the council. What this means is that coalition governments are sometimes made up of up to 10 or more political parties, the majority of these parties having obtained only one seat each in the council. Often, 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 a seat is obtained through the next stage of the highest surplus calculations. The effect of this is that opposition parties continuously lobby these smaller parties to retract from coalitions in exchange for positions or favour. These ‘‘one person’’parties who obtain a fraction of the votes required for a seat, now become ‘‘king makers’’, which can destabilise entire governments which, in turn, affects service delivery to the very people who voted these parties in.

1.3 The Local Government: Municipal Structures SecondAmendment Bill, 2025 (‘‘the Bill’’), aims to prevent circumstances such as these from occurring by providing for an electoral threshold into the calculation and allocation of seats in councils.

1.4 Thepractice of electoral thresholds is not a new concept. Electoral thresholds (albeit expressed in percentages) are used in a number of countries such as Germany, Denmark, New Zealand, Turkey, Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Romania, Ukraine and more.

1.5 The Bill also seeks to extend the period within which the first meeting of the council must be called after it has been declared elected, thereby extending the period within which the speaker, whip, an executive mayor, executive deputy mayor, mayor and deputy mayor can be elected in the council to provide more time for parties to engage with each other to form stable coalitions.

OBJECTS OFBILL 2.1 The purpose of the Bill is to amend the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act, 1998 (Act No. 117 of 1998) (‘‘the Act’’), so as to provide an electoral threshold into the calculation and allocation of seats in councils so that parties must first obtain the number of the votes equal to the seat quota +1 before they are even entitled to be considered for seat calculations and allocations. This will ensure that smaller parties, who do not enjoy the confidence of the voters, are not let into council through ‘‘the back door’’ by way of the second-round highest surplus calculations.

2.2 TheBill also seeks to amend theAct by extending the period within which the f irst meeting of the council must be called after it has been declared elected, such meeting to be called within 30 days after being declared elected, as opposed to the current 14-day period provided for in theAct.This will, in turn, extend the time period within which the speaker and whip should be elected in 5 council as such election will take place at the first sitting. The Bill also extends the time period within which members of the executive committee must be determined and the time period within which an executive mayor and executive deputy mayor may be elected. These extended periods will provide more time for parties to engage with each other to form stable coalitions.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

ActionSA to announce merger with two political parties today.

With the local government election expected later this year, ActionSA will announce a merger with two political parties.

Consolidation

Party spokesperson Matthew George said the two political parties will be joining ActionSA in “consolidating a credible and united alternative.”

“Monday’s announcement marks another important milestone that highlights ActionSA’s growing appeal to South Africans across provinces who resonate with our fight to fix South Africa.

“This fight requires the consolidation and strengthening of a unified alternative capable of displacing the failed establishment parties ahead of the upcoming Local Government Elections,” George said.

George said the announcement will be led by ActionSA President Herman Mashaba, alongside Deputy President Dr Mbahare Kekana, National Chairperson Michael Beaumont, National Spokesperson Lerato Ngobeni and the leaders of the respective political parties.

“They will be joined by key leadership from both ActionSA and the merging political parties.”

Declining support

ActionSA has experienced a significant decline in electoral support following its peak in the 2021 local government elections, particularly in the 2024 national and provincial elections, where its support plummeted to 1.2% countrywide.

In the 2021 local elections, ActionSA attracted a healthy 296 345 votes in Johannesburg. That 16.05% translated to 44 out of 270 council seats. Mashaba’s party did not win any wards.

Although ActionSA’s support has shrunk, its representation in the Joburg Council remains 44 until the 2026 local elections.

Uniting smaller parties

In January 2025, ActionSA declared its intention to unite smaller opposition parties under one banner.

The party announced it would be absorbing Forum 4 Service Delivery (F4SD), which won 18 523 votes in the 2024 national elections.

At the time, ActionSA National Chairperson Michael Beaumont illustrated how his party did not align with the “colossus” that is the government of national unity (GNU) while also not forming part of the Progressive Caucus which is made up of liberation forces.