The restructuring of South Africa's local government electoral system

Abstract

The 1990s saw momentous change in the political landscape of South Africa. A new constitution was negotiated, which ended apartheid and heralded in a more democratic era. The democratisation of local government has been covered in a general way by various authors (Cloete, 1995; Cameron, 1995, 1996, 2001 ; Pirnstone, 1998). The objective of this paper is more specific. It analyses how the local government electoral system in South Africa has evolved within the context of changing local government constitutional frameworks in the country. A number of distinct phases can be identified in this regard. Phase I was from 1910 until the early 1990s and was characterised by segregation and apartheid. The main features of the electoral system in this phase were different local government systems for different racial groups and a ward-based local electoral system. However, only whites had meaningful democratic local government. In phase 2, the Interim Constitution (1993-2000) democratised the country and included a number of power-sharing clauses to protect minority rights at all levels of government. At local government level, there was a parallel ward/proportional representation (PR) voting system in terms of a 60:40% formula. Minorities were over-represented at ward level. Phase 3 was marked by the Final Constitution of 2000, which involved the full democratisation of the country and the abolition of power-sharing clauses. Although there was a 50:50% PR/ward formula at local government level, it was a more integrated electoral system than its interim counterpart. Finally, 2002 marked the beginning of phase 4, when the government controversially amended the Constitution and passed 'crossing-the-floor' legislation, which enabled local councillors to defect from the political party whose ticket they were elected on in the 2000 elections.