Political Patronage in South Africa Local Government: Is the Local Government: Municipal Systems Amendment Act Helping Matters?

Abstract

One of the lead precursors to unstable local governance in the contemporary South Africa pertains to the embedded culture of political patronage. It is believed that the provisions added to the newly amended version of the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act 3 of 2022, which among other things, limits the political rights of officials, will somehow counter the existing patronage patterns. While this Amendment Act is a step in the right direction in as far as professionalisation of the local government sector is concerned, the question that this article attempts to answer is: will this attempt to insulate officials from politics result in stable municipal administrations, ethical conduct, professionalism, service delivery and less political interference? In addition, what are the ramifications that political parties are likely to encounter as a result of the curtailed political rights of their members? One of the findings is that the inserted changes are going to destabilise, firstly, the intra-party arrangements at political level, and secondly, will uproot elements of favouritism, nepotism and to some extent frustrate the existing culture of patronage in municipalities. However, it must be acknowledged that this is not going to be easy, given the damage already done such as bloated organograms, and the practice of cadre deployment which is facilitated by ruling parties in councils. With local government being at the coalface of service delivery and development, professionalisation is crucial but there is also a need to cultivate and encourage a strong ethos and philosophy of praxis underpinned by Ubuntu, the African philosophy