The voting is done and the Electoral Commission has declared the results. But in most of South Africa, nobody has actually won the right to govern yet.
On Sunday night the IEC confirmed that of the 213 municipal councils, only 72 have a party with an outright majority of seats. The other 127 are hung (SAnews). That includes seven of the eight metros. Only Cape Town, where the DA kept its majority, will not be run by a coalition (The National).
Here is what happens next, in plain terms.
What is a hung council?
A hung council is one where no single party holds more than half the seats. Nobody can elect a speaker or a mayor on their own votes, so parties have to make deals. That can be a formal coalition, or a minority government that has to find support for each decision.
The clock: 14 calendar days
The election declaration on Sunday 8 November started a legal clock. Under Section 29 of the Municipal Structures Act, each new council must hold its first meeting within 14 days, and those are calendar days, not working days (Daily Maverick). That puts the deadline at 22 November (Business Day).
Local municipalities also have 14 days to send their representatives to district councils.
What happens at the first sitting
The municipal manager calls the meeting and chairs it until a speaker is elected. A majority of councillors must be present for it to count.
- Speaker first. Nominations are made on a signed form, without debate. One nominee means that person is elected. More than one means a secret ballot.
- Then the mayor. The new speaker chairs the vote for executive mayor, using the same process.
- Then the team. The mayor appoints a mayoral committee, the council sets up its committees, and the work starts.
All of this is set out in the Structures Act, as summarised by Daily Maverick.
The secret ballot matters. It is why councillors sometimes vote against their own party’s deal, and why coalitions that look solid on paper can fall apart on the day.
Who is negotiating
Both the ANC and the DA have set up national negotiating teams, at least for the metros and bigger councils (Business Day). That means decisions about your city may be made by party leaders who do not live there.
In Gauteng, ActionSA is the kingmaker. Business Day’s Richard Calland, citing CSIR projections, writes that a DA plus ActionSA deal could produce a two-party majority in Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni, while there is no ANC plus ActionSA two-party option in any of the three. In eThekwini, the MK Party led the count and its new negotiating team is preparing to talk to the ANC (IOL).
What if they cannot agree?
If a council cannot be formed, the provincial MEC for local government can step in under Section 139 of the Constitution, either directing the council to fix the problem or taking over its functions. As a last resort the MEC can dissolve the council, which triggers a by-election for the whole council (Daily Maverick).
What you can watch for
Some parties are already promising transparency. DA federal chairperson Solly Msimanga said the party will make its coalition principles public “so that when we trigger an agreement, people must know what we agreed on”. The UDM says it will only engage on the basis of “a written, public agreement” (The National).
Hold them to it. Between now and 22 November, ask three questions of whoever wants to run your council:
- Is the agreement published? If not, why not?
- Who gets the money portfolios? Finance, water and electricity matter more than the mayoral chain.
- What happens when it breaks? A deal with no exit rules is how cities end up with a new mayor every few months.
Your vote set the numbers. The next two weeks decide what those numbers buy.
Sources opened for this post: SAnews, The National, Daily Maverick, Business Day, IOL.