All municipal officials will soon be banned from holding any office in a political party while also working for a municipality. This comes after the MPs in the National Assembly (NA) passed the Local Government: Municipal Systems Amendment Bill yesterday after the National Council of Provinces slightly amended the bill earlier.
Cedric Frolick, the Presiding Officer, referred the bill to President Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday afternoon to officially ratify it as law after political parties pledged their support for it.
Several opposition parties welcomed the new bill and several MPs said that this bill could stop the ANC’s policy of cadre deployment.
According to Fikile Xasa, chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, which submitted the bill to the NA for approval, it will implement “far-reaching reforms” in municipalities.
He said it will help to distinguish between political leadership and administration.
“To make municipalities’ administrations professional and depoliticised,” he said, “it is necessary that all municipal officials, and not just municipal managers and other managers who report directly to the former, be prohibited from holding political offices while running for a municipality.”
According to Xasa municipal unions are expected to challenge this provision in the bill.
He said parliament had followed thorough legal processes to ensure it is constitutional and justifiable given the important purpose and public interest it serves.
The bill will also make contracts of managers who report directly to municipal managers permanent, so it will no longer be subject to municipal councils’ discretion.
DA MP Cilliers Brink explained the previous amendment bill had prohibited only municipal and other managers from also being office bearers in political parties or groups.
“After a transitional period, all municipal employees will now be legally prohibited from serving in a decision-making body of a political party in both an elected and an appointed capacity,” he pointed out.
