Some suggest there should be minimum education requirements for public representatives
Municipal legislation currently doesn’t require people to have any educational qualification to become a councillor, mayor, or speaker.
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JOHANNESBURG - During a dialogue on reviewing municipal legislation, some people suggested there should be minimum education requirements for public representatives.
Municipal legislation currently doesn’t require people to have any educational qualification to become a councillor, mayor, or speaker.
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On Monday, the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) held a women and youth dialogue on reviewing the 1998 White Paper on Local Government.
The dialogue aims to collate views from all groups of people for new and updated policies on local governance, which will be presented in a White Paper in 2026.
Benedict Phalane said he supports the introduction of minimum education requirements for councillors; however, it must rest with political parties.
“So you’d rather say as either ANC [African National Congress], EFF [Economic Freedom Fighters], IFP [Inkatha Freedom Party] that the pre-requisite to you as a candidate who wants to be a councillor, at least have a diploma because as a president of a party or regional chairperson of a party, I can still factionally take any other person without grade 10 or 12 and make [them] an MMC.”
A public representative in Ekurhuleni, Dora Mlambo, said councillors must be supported by municipalities to further their studies.
“It’s difficult because you cannot take your R10k every month, you pay for your tertiary [education] and you must also support your family because that’s what we're doing, we take our money, we pay because we want to upgrade ourselves.”