National Assembly considering more legislation to stabilise municipalities

CAPE TOWN - The National Assembly is currently considering more local government legislation to stabilise municipalities.

This week, it introduced the Local Government: Municipal Structures Second Amendment Bill for consideration by Members of Parliament (MPs), to give local councils a month to elect a mayor.

This will put the municipalities in line with national government for the period to elect a president.

The bill says coalitions will be the ‘‘new norm’’, at a national, provincial and local government level, and parties and independents will have to form workable solutions.

The amendments to the legislation governing local governments were introduced by the Democratic Alliance's (DA) Siviwe Gwarube as a Private Members Bill, and were aimed at stabilising councils after elections.

One of the key amendments is to extend the time in which a mayor, speaker or whip must be elected after a local government election, and align it with the 30 days allowed by national government to elect a president.

It is also to provide for an electoral threshold when determining the allocation of proportional seats in a metropolitan, local and district council.

The Private Members Bill will be considered by the National Assembly before it heads to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).