Political parties need to take local government seriously by deploying capable candidates for councillors and mayoral positions in the upcoming Local Government Elections (LGE).
We need councillors and mayors who are decisive, not afraid to take difficult decisions, and who are able to negotiate coalition governments in the best interests of South Africans rather than along racial lines.
Some have argued that black political parties must work together; however, our democracy was never built along those lines.
We were taught the importance of a rainbow nation by our first democratically elected President, Nelson Mandela. Coalitions must reflect that vision if we are to move South Africa forward as one nation.
The Government of National Unity (GNU), formed after the 2024 general election, reflects that principle through its composition.
It may not be perfect, but it is working for South Africans, just as the GNU did in 1994.
The notion that black parties should work together to sideline parties perceived as white or funded by white people is backward and divisive. It is not what Mandela represented as the father of our nation.
Why is it important to have decisive councillors who act in the best interests of citizens? There is a growing trend that we are failing to acknowledge.
Several municipalities have been dissolved, either by the courts or through provincial intervention, because of weak leadership that placed personal and political interests ahead of the people. The result has been poor service delivery and dysfunctional local government.
In 2017, Metsimaholo Local Municipality failed to adopt its 2017/2018 budget. In terms of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) No. 56 of 2003, the provincial government dissolved the municipal council. Before the dissolution, the MEC for Finance wrote to the Executive Mayor on 6 July 2017, warning of the consequences should the budget not be adopted. The municipality was ultimately dissolved under Section 139(4) of the Constitution, an administrator was appointed, and by-elections were held on 29 November 2017 under the Fezile Dabi District.
Again, in 2026, another municipality under the Fezile Dabi District, Ngwathe Local Municipality, found itself in court due to a lack of service delivery. AfriForum brought the application, which was heard in December 2024. In June 2025, Judge J.P. Daffue ruled that Ngwathe Municipality had failed to fulfil its constitutional, legal and administrative obligations to the residents of Koppies, Parys, Vredefort, Heilbron and other towns.
He ordered that the municipal council be dissolved and that the provincial government intervene. However, instead of accepting the judgment, the municipality appealed to the Supreme Court of Appeal and lost. It then approached the Constitutional Court, where it lost once again. The municipality is currently under administration and, with the local government elections expected in November, it is unlikely that by-elections will be held before then.
It is also worth noting that in 2020, there were two other municipalities that were dissolved through legal processes: Makana Local Municipality and the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality.
In Tshwane, ANC and EFF councillors failed to attend council meetings.
The DA challenged the Gauteng provincial government’s decision to dissolve the council in the High Court.
The High Court ruled against the provincial government and ordered ANC and EFF councillors to attend council meetings. The Gauteng provincial government appealed to the Constitutional Court, hoping to overturn the ruling, but it lost. The Constitutional Court confirmed the High Court’s judgment.
The question we must ask is whether the ANC and EFF’s decision not to attend council meetings was in the best interests of the people or whether it was purely political. The voters gave them a mandate, yet they chose not to fulfil their responsibilities.
We cannot normalise a situation where courts have to instruct elected councillors to attend council meetings.
It demonstrates that local government is not always taken seriously by those elected to lead municipalities and ensure that residents receive basic services.
In Makana Local Municipality, the Unemployed People’s Movement approached the courts in 2019 because the municipality had failed to provide basic services, including water, sanitation, refuse removal, road maintenance and sound financial management. On 14 January 2020, the High Court found that the municipal council had breached its constitutional obligations and ordered the Eastern Cape government to appoint an administrator and implement a recovery plan.
The municipality and the Eastern Cape government appealed the judgment, and in 2021, the Supreme Court of Appeal overturned the order, although it acknowledged that the municipality was indeed dysfunctional.
Based on these legal matters, it is clear that political parties must place competent and decisive leaders on their candidate lists. We need leaders who can hold officials accountable because when municipalities fail, it reflects directly on the municipal council.
We need mature councillors who attend council meetings, raise issues without fear, and hold those in government accountable, we do not need councillors who stay away from council meetings, forgetting that they were elected by the people and not by their political parties, we need councillors who are loyal to the people first, not to party politics, we need councillors who will not frustrate the adoption of municipal budgets because of personal egos or political games.
Lessons must be learned; there is a need for a serious change in mindset.
We must remember that South Africa is a rainbow nation, and we must continue working together across political and racial lines to build a country that serves all its people
Opinion by Rebone Tau, a political commentator and author of The Rise and Fall of the ANCYL. She is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Pan-African Thought & Conversation (IPATC) at the University of Johannesburg, and she writes in her personal capacity.
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