South Africa may need to begin a deliberate consolidation process by reconfiguring local government into fewer, more viable regional authorities. This is to align governance with actual economic corridors rather than inherited administrative boundaries. South Africa clings to 257 municipalities as if the number itself is proof of democratic reach.
This is not an argument for bypassing constitutional protections or weakening local accountability, but rather serves a constitutional purpose requiring institutional redesign rather than institutional preservation. Larger municipalities are more likely to support career pathways for engineers and planners, integrate spatial development more coherently, and make oversight more feasible for provincial and national authorities.
The question, however, is not whether scale is ideal, but whether the current configuration remains viable in the absence of a sustaining economic base.
In this light, the case for consolidation is less a betrayal of local democracy than a defence of it. Insisting that every municipality must survive can become profoundly anti-democratic when these institutions cannot keep water clean, roads drivable, or streetlights working.
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Municipalities that are too administratively thin cannot discipline leaders, attract skilled professionals, or maintain basic services. The structure protects political office but abandons public service.
Some will read this as a technocratic narrowing of democratic space. Yet the more difficult question is whether representation without capability still constitutes meaningful democratic participation or whether it gradually erodes trust in democratic institutions themselves.
The Constitution protects effective, accountable, and development-oriented governance, not the preservation of institutional forms that can no longer achieve those ends. If the current structure blocks the achievement of constitutional purpose, then fidelity to the Constitution may require redesigning its architecture.
■ Sekhampu is the chief director of the North-West University (NWU) Business School.
