Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Namane Dickson Masemola, urged newly elected councillors to put citizens first and help build functional municipalities that support service delivery and economic growth.
“For South Africa’s economy to work, it needs functional municipalities, it needs decisive leadership, it needs well-oiled administrative capacity. Therefore, our theme is: Every Municipality Must Work. It is our theme for the next five years.
“If every municipality can work, it means people will have services and the economy will grow,” Masemola said.
Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa said a 14-day period for the constitution of municipal councils would begin on Wednesday, November 11 2026, following the official gazetting of the election results.
During this period, municipalities must undertake processes such as convening the first council meeting, electing office-bearers, establishing political leadership, putting council structures in place and preparing for the new term which would see the incoming council take over responsibility for municipal governance, oversight, budgets, integrated development planning (IDPs) and service delivery.
“Part of the work is to make sure that once the councils are constituted, there is a process to hand over the reports from the previous leadership so that they account to the incoming leadership," Masemola said.
Masemola acknowledged the challenges posed by hung councils, where coalition negotiations are needed to establish stable local governments, warning that the process could affect the timetable.
Of the 213 municipalities, 72 councils have a party that secured an outright majority of seats. In the remaining 127 municipalities, no political party obtained more than 50% of the seats and these are hung councils.
"These results are pointing to a very extraordinary phenomenon which has now become permanent in our municipal electoral democracy of hung councils, which necessitates coalition municipalities. There is a detailed timetable, but when you are managing a political situation, that timetable might work - or might not work.
He reassured the public that key municipal operations would continue during the transition.
"Whatever happens – notwithstanding these realities – within 14 days, these parties would have to agree on the proper ways and means of how they’re going to work together," Masemola said.
