By DR. Michael Sutcliffe and Ms. Sue Bannister, City Insight (PTY) LTD
HARDLY a day goes by without another headline screaming out at readers that a coalition is faltering, a Mayor is set to be voted out, that a political roundabout circus is underway, that coalition talks are underway, and so on.
The focus is usually only on Category A (Metropolitan) municipalities and over the past few months we have seen a succession of these, from Nelson Mandela Bay to Ekurhuleni to Johannesburg and now Tshwane. In all of this, though, Executive Mayors do get changed, rather frequently in some cases, we should add, and the city continues to function.
However, in spite of claims in the media to the contrary, there is no clear evidence that coalitions have poorer records of service delivery and are more dysfunctional. Indeed, if we look at the “hung” municipalities – those where there is no single majority party in power – we find that 44% (seven municipalities) of the “stable” municipalities are hung municipalities, in terms of service delivery, governance, etc. This compares with the fact that hung municipalities constitute only 31% of all municipalities.
The same is true when we examine other indicators like financial distress and the auditor-general reports – there is no clear evidence that hung municipalities are necessarily more dysfunctional than the rest of the municipalities.
When it comes to coalitions, though, we do find that the vast majority are in municipalities which have Mayoral Executives. This is because, in the Executive Committee type of municipality, such executives are constituted based on the proportionate support such parties have in the Council as a whole. This type of municipality is a form of forced coalition because it would mean in the case of Tshwane, all the major parties (ANC, DA, EFF, Action SA and FF+) would be represented in the Executive Committee. Coalition agreements would then not be necessary, except for at least alliances around who becomes Mayor, Speaker or Chief Whip.
This is also why the proposed legislative amendments are suggesting that where there are hung municipalities, the type of municipality in place should be an Executive Committee.
Let’s take a step back, though, and contextualise how the municipal electoral system has unfolded between the first election in 2000 and the fifth election in 2021. Starting with parties winning seats, one of the most striking features is the growth in the number of parties who won at least one seat across all municipalities. In 2000 there were 66 different parties winning seats and now in 2021, we have 167 parties represented in one or more municipal councils across South Africa. In addition, while the number of women elected as councillors has grown, from 28% of all councillors in 2000 to 37% in 2021, this is still woefully short of the equality in gender representation that we should be striving for.
At the same time, there are a few parties who have dominated the distribution of municipal Council seats, with the ANC and DA combined constituting almost 80% of all seats in 2000 decreasing to 69% in 2021, largely as a result of parties “splitting” off from the ANC. As a result, the ANC’s share of municipal council seats had dropped from 63% of all municipal council seats in 2000 to 52% of all seats in 2021.
Overall, though, we find a significantly high proportion of councillors being replaced after each election. For example, in 2006, some 63% of all councillors were new and in 2021 this had increased to 70% in 2021. This is very worrying because political stability in municipalities requires councillors who are experienced and yet if 70% are being replaced in each election, political institutional memory is being lost.
Over the five elections, and as is to be expected with a proportional representation system, the number of hung councils has grown significantly. In 2000 there were some 37 hung municipalities and this has increased to 87 after the 2021 elections. Importantly, today five out of the eight major metropolitan municipalities have hung municipalities. Four of them (Tshwane, Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela Bay and Ekurhuleni) are Executive Mayor- and one (eThekwini) is an Executive Committee- type of municipality.
As indicated in the introduction, these hung municipalities, and particularly those which have coalitions, have a number of political challenges to overcome which are often affected by self-interest, an inward-looking focus, and poor leadership. There is often not much specific information which coalition partners provide publicly as a means of binding themselves to be accountable to the communities they serve.
In addition, changes in coalitions do affect administrations and can also lead to poor behaviours where administrators forget their legislative roles and decide to act politically, supporting one or another contender in coalitions. This often leads to appointments not being made in terms of competency, but based on personal interest, with competent people leaving administrations and younger competent professionals avoiding applying for jobs in government as they feel that may stain their reputations.
Communities, too, are often left in the dark and there can be no doubt that this affects the ability of municipalities to ensure there is no corruption, fraud and wasteful expenditure with delivery often getting distorted.
These weaknesses need to be addressed through clear plans of action being communicated and publicised by incoming coalitions. Here, the existing IDP and budgets should continue to be implemented, with clear financial and service plans made available as urgently as possible. There must also be clear commitments to competent and clean administrations. In this regard, it is good to see that in the case of Tshwane, the ANC has indicated that a financial and service delivery recovery plan should be adopted within four weeks.
Coalition-building has been and will continue to be an important part of municipal governance going forward. It is not limited to only ensuring there are enough votes to pass Council resolutions, but it must always be about serving all of our people better, through responsive, transparent, competent and implementable actions.
However, coalition or alliance building should be in the DNA of all governments, including those which have a single majority party running the municipality. Our diversity is our strength and we must collectively focus on actions which serve all our communities, redressing the effects of our past, reducing inequality, poverty and unemployment, and building our economies for the benefit of all.
DR. MICHAEL SUTCLIFFE and MS. SUE BANNISTER are Directors of City Insight.