OPINION: Coalitions need to serve communities, not politicians

By Rebone Tau The 2026 local government election s may be the first South African elections where the question is no longer simply, “Which political parties will win?” Instead, the main question will be, “Can political parties still convince voters that they deserve their vote?” No political party at this point can claim they will get an outright majority in most of the municipalities across the country; this means there will be a lot of hung municipalities, which will then lead to coalitions.

The Local Government: Municipal Structures Amendment Bill will not be passed before the elections because it was only tabled in Parliament in August 2026.

This speaks to what kind of coalition negotiations we are going to see after the results are out, as parties have fourteen days to form government in all the municipalities.

Recent municipal coalitions in South Africa have been more of a gentlemen’s agreement; this kind of attitude needs to change, as the people have given all the political parties or independent candidates a mandate to represent them and serve their interests for a term of five years.

Those who are in council should take voters seriously and not go into gentlemen’s agreements that don’t serve the interests of the people.

As citizens, we need to vote for credible ward councillors who understand their mandate and are accessible to the citizens during their term in office.

This is because coalitions are very complex, and we need councillors who will account on a regular basis and call ward committee meetings.

Where there are challenges, they need to communicate with the citizens in their respective wards, as they have a direct mandate from the citizens compared to proportional representation councillors, who are also known as PR councillors.

What we will be looking at is the composition of coalition partners.

As we wait for parliament to pass the Local Government: Municipal Structures Amendment Bill, councillors need to be proactive when it comes to coalition agreements.

Citizens no longer want coalitions that don’t serve their interests, as we have since 2016.

Currently, there is nothing that we can use to measure the coalitions that we have seen in the past.

All we have seen, in the main, are unstable coalitions that do not serve the interests of citizens when it comes to service delivery in our communities.

Political parties need to take coalitions seriously because they are here to stay.