WhoseResponsibilityIs It Anyway?

Think about the last time something frustrated you about your neighbourhood, town, village or township.

Maybe it was a pothole that had been sitting unattended for months. A burst water pipe that left your village without water for days. Overflowing refuse bins on your street. A park that no longer feels safe. Or a streetlight that stopped working while complaints went UNANSWERED.

Issues like these do not happen in isolation.

They are often the result of decisions being made - or not being made. Decisions about priorities, budgets, maintenance and service delivery in your town, city, village or township.

Local Government Is Closer to Your Life Than You Think

South Africa has three spheres of government: national, provincial and local. Most people pay attention to the national government, the big show. National elections attract the most media coverage, the most political debate and often the highest voter turnout.

But when it comes to the services and infrastructure that shape everyday life, local government is where the real action happens.

This sphere does things. It builds things. It fixes things. Or at least, it is supposed to.

Local government is the sphere of government closest to the communities it serves. The decisions made by municipalities are often the decisions people experience most directly in their daily lives.

This is no small responsibility. A report by the South African Local Government Association (“SALGA”) notes that municipalities collectively manage infrastructure and services that reach more than 60 million South Africans. The report further highlights that the quality of local governance plays a direct role in determining whether the basic needs of communities are met (SALGA, 2021). When local government works, you benefit every day, often without noticing. When it fails, however, the consequences are felt directly and personally.

Local government also receives billions of rands each year to deliver services, maintain infrastructure and support development in communities. According to the National Treasury, municipalities received over R150 billion in transfers during the financial years 2022 to 2023 (National Treasury, 2023). Decisions about how that money is spent, which projects are prioritised and which communities receive attention are made by people sitting in municipal councils.

Those are people elected by those who showed up to vote.

Understanding local government is important. Not in a vague or abstract sense, but in a practical way that recognizes the role it plays in shaping everyday life.

This is about understanding:

• Who has the power to make decisions about how your community develops.
• How those decisions are made.
• How that power ends up in the hands of the people elected to govern.
• How those decisions affect the places where people live, work and raise their families.
• Where you fit into the system and how you can influence the decisions that affect your community.

It is easy to assume that the answer lies entirely with local government itself.

Certainly, municipal leaders, councillors and officials all have important responsibilities.

But communities also have a role to play.

Democracy is not something that happens only inside council chambers. It depends on citizens paying attention, participating, speaking up and making their voices heard.

That is why local government elections matter.

Every local government election helps determine who will make decisions about the services, infrastructure, development and public spaces that shape daily life in your community.

When you vote in a local election, you are not choosing who will run the country. You are helping choose the people who will make decisions about your ward, your neighbourhood, your village, your township and your municipality.

And this is no small matter.

Citizens as Shareholders

In many ways, citizens are the shareholders of their municipalities. Municipal infrastructure, facilities and other public assets are built, maintained and operated using public money. These assets exist to serve communities, not politicians or officials.

Communities therefore have a direct stake in how these resources are managed, how public money is spent and whether municipalities deliver on their responsibilities.

Elections help determine who will represent your interests and exercise oversight over those resources on your behalf.

Just as shareholders have an interest in who sits on a company's board, citizens should have an interest in who sits on their municipal council. Councillors do not manage the day-to-day operations of a municipality. Rather, they help provide oversight, approve budgets and policies and hold the administration accountable for its performance.

The quality of that oversight can influence the decisions that are made, the priorities that are pursued and ultimately the services delivered to communities.

In this sense, the returns on your investment are often visible in the quality of service delivery, the condition of public infrastructure and the overall wellbeing of your community.

What’s at stake in 2026?

South Africa is scheduled to hold local government elections on 4 November 2026. Those elections will determine who governs municipalities for the next five years. That means five years of decisions about local budgets, service delivery, infrastructure, development projects and community priorities.

Five years is a long time.

For young people entering the workforce, starting families, looking for housing or building their futures, those years are not abstract. They are the years in which you will need reliable transport, safe public spaces, municipal services and economic opportunities close to home.

For communities across South Africa, the next five years may determine whether critical infrastructure is built, maintained and expanded, or whether it continues to deteriorate. They may influence whether businesses choose to invest, create jobs and grow local economies, or whether opportunities are lost to other towns, cities and regions.

The decisions made during that period will shape not only the quality of services people receive, but also the opportunities available to future generations.

That is what is at stake.

Power to you!

Research by the Human Sciences Research Council has found that failures in local service delivery often affect young people and low-income communities the hardest. The same research highlights civic participation, including voting, as one of the most important ways communities can hold local government accountable.

Of all the tools available to citizens, voting remains one of the most powerful.

It is one of the few moments when every person's voice carries the same weight. It allows communities to reward good leadership, demand change where it is needed and influence the direction of their municipality.

Choosing not to vote is also a choice. It does not make local government disappear or stop decisions from being made. It simply means that those decisions will be shaped by the people who did participate.

The question is not whether local government affects you. It does.

Local government influences the quality of life in your community. Local elections determine who will make decisions that affect that quality of life.

That is why local elections matter.

The real question is whether you will help shape the decisions that affect your community over the next five years.

Section 152 of the Constitution reminds us that local government is where the Constitution must become practical: in accountable councils, sustainable services, public participation and the daily dignity of every community.

It is easy to think of local government just as a service provider.

Water comes from the municipality. Refuse is collected by the municipality. Roads are maintained by the municipality.

But the Constitution envisages something far more ambitious.

It envisages local government as a democratic institution, a development institution and a vehicle through which communities can participate in shaping their own future.

A Sphere of Government, Not a Branch Office

Chapter 7 of the Constitution makes it clear that local government is not simply an office of national or provincial government. It is a distinct, interdependent and interrelated sphere of government with its own councils, powers and responsibilities. This is important because municipalities do not merely carry messages from Pretoria or provincial capitals. They make decisions, set priorities and exercise authority within the areas assigned to them by the Constitution and legislation.

Section 152 of the Constitution sets out five (5) objectives of local government. These are:

• To provide democratic and accountable government for local communities;
• To ensure the provision of services to communities in a sustainable manner;
• To promote social and economic development;
• To promote a safe and healthy environment; and
• To encourage the involvement of communities and community organisations in local government matters.

In simple terms, section 152 tells us what municipalities exist to do.

These objects are not decorative words. They are the constitutional standard against which municipal conduct must be judged.

Developmental Local Government

Section 152 must be read with section 153 of the Constitution.

While section 152 sets out the objectives of local government, section 153 explains how municipalities are expected to pursue those objectives. It requires every municipality to structure and manage its administration, budgeting and planning processes in a way that gives priority to the basic needs of the community and promotes social and economic development.

This is the heart of developmental local government.

A municipality is therefore not only a service provider. It is also a development institution. Its role is not simply to maintain existing services, but to help create the conditions for human dignity, safer and healthier communities, greater economic opportunity and prosperous communities.

This is why municipal budgets, integrated development plans, performance reports and public participation processes matter. They are not paperwork. They are the tools through which constitutional duties are translated into roads, water systems, clinics, safe public spaces, local economic activity and better living conditions.

Of course, municipalities can only fulfil these responsibilities if they have the authority to act.

Section 156 gives municipalities executive authority over local government matters listed in Part B of Schedule 4 and Part B of Schedule 5 of the Constitution, as well as other matters assigned by national or provincial legislation. These include responsibilities such as municipal planning, water and sanitation services, refuse removal, municipal roads, street lighting, firefighting services, public transport, traffic management and local amenities.

These are the everyday functions through which constitutional government enters ordinary homes and communities.

Councils, Openness and Participation

Sections 151(2) and 160 of the Constitution confirm that the municipal council is the central decision-making body of the municipality.

It is the council that exercises municipal powers, approves budgets, adopts by-laws and makes key decisions affecting the community, including decisions relating to rates, taxes, levies and other municipal charges.

This means that the council, rather than a single councillor, mayor or official acting alone, carries the formal authority of the municipality.

The Constitution also requires municipal councils to conduct their business in an open manner, unless it is reasonable to close a sitting because of the nature of the matter being discussed.

This commitment to openness reflects a broader constitutional principle. Section 195 requires public administration in every sphere of government to be accountable, transparent, responsive to people's needs, development-oriented and efficient in the use of resources.

The Local Government: Municipal Structures Act 117 of 1998 and the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act 32 of 2000 give practical force to these constitutional principles.

For example, section 19 of the Municipal Structures Act requires municipal councils to strive, within their capacity, to achieve the objectives of local government set out in section 152 of the Constitution. Councils must also review community needs, priorities, participation processes, service delivery mechanisms and municipal performance on a regular basis.

The Municipal Systems Act goes even further by placing community participation at the centre of local governance. It recognises that a municipality consists not only of political structures and an administration, but also of the local community within the municipal area.

Accordingly, section 16 requires municipalities to develop a culture of governance that complements representative democracy with participatory democracy.

In other words, local democracy is not something that happens only inside council chambers. Communities are expected to be part of it.

Rights of Residents

Communities are not merely recipients of municipal services. They are also participants in local democracy.

The Municipal Systems Act recognises that residents have a right to be informed, consulted and heard on matters affecting their communities.

Section 5 of the Municipal Systems Act gives members of the local community the right to:

• contribute to municipal decision-making,
• submit written or oral complaints and recommendations,
• receive prompt responses,
• be informed of decisions affecting their rights and property,
• regular disclosure of the state of affairs of the municipality,
• and demand that council and committee proceedings be open and free from improper self-interest.

These rights are supported by corresponding obligations on municipalities.

For example, section 17 requires municipalities to create opportunities for participation through public meetings, consultations, hearings, petitions and other forms of engagement.

The law also recognises that not everyone experiences participation in the same way. Municipalities are therefore required to pay particular attention to people who may face barriers to participation, including people with disabilities, people who cannot read or write, women and other disadvantaged groups.

Local democracy must therefore be accessible and meaningful, not something that exists only on paper.

Why This Matters Now

The constitutional vision for local government is ambitious.

It envisages municipalities that are accountable, responsive, development-oriented and capable of meeting the basic needs of communities.

Yet in many parts of South Africa, that vision remains far from reality.

The consequences are not confined to audit reports and council meetings.

They are felt in communities where infrastructure deteriorates, services become unreliable, development stalls and opportunities are lost.

This is precisely why local democracy matters.

When local government is under pressure, the cost of disengagement becomes even greater. Decisions will still be made. Budgets will still be approved. Public resources will still be spent.

The question is whether citizens will play a role in shaping those decisions, holding leaders accountable and helping to ensure that municipalities fulfil the promises made in the Constitution.

Section 152 therefore does more than describe the objectives of local government.

A ward councillor is the community's democratic access point into the municipality: not the person who runs every service, but the representative who must listen, escalate, follow up and report back.

Every community needs a way for its voice to be heard.

People have different priorities, concerns and expectations about the places where they live. Yet it would be impossible for every resident to participate directly in every municipal decision.

That is why local government is built on the principle of representation.

Communities elect representatives to speak on their behalf, raise their concerns and participate in decision-making.

Voting is the mechanism through which this happens.

When you vote in a local government election, you are helping to choose the people who will represent your community and participate in decisions that affect its future.

Understanding who these representatives are, what they do and how they are elected is an important part of understanding local government itself.

Your Two Votes Matter

In most South African local government elections, voters cast more than one vote.

One vote is used to elect a ward councillor.

The other is used to elect proportional representation (“PR”) councillors through political parties.

Although these votes work differently, both play an important role in determining who represents communities and how decisions are made in local government.

Your Ward Vote

Your ward vote helps determine who will represent your local community.

Ward councillors are elected to represent specific geographic areas called wards. They may be nominated by political parties or stand as independent candidates.

The ward councillor is responsible for understanding local concerns, raising issues affecting residents and serving as an important link between the community and the municipality.

Your PR Vote

Your ward vote helps determine who will represent your community in the municipal council.

However, local government is about more than individual wards and neighbourhoods. Municipal councils must also make decisions about budgets, policies and priorities that affect the municipality as a whole.

This is where your proportional representation (“PR”) vote comes in.

Your PR vote helps determine how many seats each political party receives in the municipal council. PR councillors are elected from party lists according to the share of votes that parties receive across the municipality.

This matters because the composition of the council influences municipal priorities, policies, budgets and decision-making.

The PR vote therefore helps shape the overall direction of the municipality.

Two Types of Representation

In simple terms, ward councillors represent a place, while PR councillors represent the overall support that the party has received across the municipality. Together, they form the municipal council and participate in decisions affecting the municipality.

Local government is therefore designed to balance local community representation with broader political representation.

The Ward Councillor: Your Local Representative

A ward councillor is often the most visible face of local government.

For many residents, the ward councillor is the first person contacted when there is a pothole, a leaking pipe, a broken streetlight, a billing problem, a refuse crisis or another service delivery concern.

This makes ward councillors important democratic access points.

It also means that ward councillors are often the representatives residents know best and interact with most frequently.

However, this visibility can sometimes create confusion about what ward councillors are responsible for and what powers they actually have.

Understanding that distinction is important because it helps residents know what to expect from their elected representatives and how to hold them accountable.

To understand accountability, it helps to understand what councillors are actually expected to do.

What Your Representatives Are Meant to Do

The primary role of councillors is representation.

Whether elected through a ward or through proportional representation, councillors are expected to represent the interests of the people who elected them.

This includes listening to community concerns, communicating information to residents, raising issues affecting communities, participating in decision-making, exercising oversight, helping to safeguard the proper use of public resources and reporting back to the public.

In other words, councillors are elected to be the voice of communities within local government.

Councillors do not make decisions in isolation. They work as part of a broader system of representation and decision-making.

Ward councillors and proportional representation councillors work together as part of a municipal council. Through the council and its structures, they debate issues, consider proposals, exercise oversight and participate in decisions that affect the municipality.

Their influence comes not only from the positions they hold, but also from their ability to represent communities effectively, persuade others, build support for ideas and advocate for the interests of the people they serve.

Ward councillors play a particularly important role in connecting communities to local government. They serve as an important link between residents, elected representatives and municipal officials, helping to ensure that community concerns are heard and addressed through the appropriate municipal processes.

Yet representation is not the same as unlimited power.

What Your Representatives Cannot Do

Representation is important, but it also has limits.

A councillor does not personally run the municipality.

A councillor cannot simply order officials to allocate houses, award tenders, appoint staff or ignore municipal processes.

Nor are councillors responsible for personally repairing roads, fixing burst pipes, replacing streetlights or resolving every service delivery problem themselves.

Councillors also cannot make many decisions unilaterally. Important decisions often require approval through council processes, municipal policies and approved budgets.

This means that even effective councillors must work within the rules and decision-making structures of local government.

Their role is to represent communities, raise concerns, follow up on issues, participate in decisions and hold the administration accountable.

This distinction is important because accountability depends on understanding who is responsible for what.

A councillor should be judged not on whether they personally solved every problem, but on whether they represented the community effectively, communicated honestly, followed up on concerns and used the available processes to advance the interests of residents.

Why This Matters

Representation is one of the foundations of local democracy.

Every local government election helps determine who will carry the voices of communities into the rooms where decisions are made.

Understanding the role of councillors, their powers and their limitations helps citizens know what to expect from their representatives and what to hold them accountable for.

What the numbers tell us

In 2021, South Africa recorded the lowest voter turnout in the history of its local government elections.

In simple terms, more than half of registered voters stayed away from the polls in 2021. In some wards, only 1 out of every 3 registered voters went to vote.

These numbers matter because local government decisions shape everyday life - from water and electricity to roads, local economic development, libraries and refuse removal.

Participation is not equal across all groups. Women have consistently made up most of the voters’ roll, while many young people remain unregistered. This means some experiences are more strongly represented than others.

Over time, these patterns shape local democracy. The people who participate most consistently are often the people whose needs, concerns and lived experiences are more visible in public discussions and decision-making spaces.

Why Register?

Before you can vote, you must be registered as a voter.

Registration may seem like a small administrative step, but it is an important part of the democratic process. It is how the Independent Electoral Commission (“IEC”) confirms that you are eligible to vote and allocates you to the voting district where you will cast your ballot.

Without registration, you cannot participate in local government elections.

Registration also helps ensure that elections are conducted fairly and accurately. It allows the IEC to prepare voter rolls, establish voting stations and ensure that every eligible voter has an opportunity to participate.

Most importantly, registration is the first step in ensuring that your voice can be counted when decisions are made about who will represent your community.

In other words, registration is not the election itself.

Who Can Register to Vote?

• Be a South African citizen*.
• Be at least 16 years¹ old to register.
• Have a valid South African identity document, smart ID card or temporary identity certificate.

Note 1: Although citizens may register from the age of 16, they may only vote once they are 18 years old.

* Voters should register in the voting district where they ordinarily live. This helps ensure that they receive the correct ballot papers and can vote in the local government elections relevant to their community.

Registration Is Not the Finish Line

How to Register Decision Tree

Registration, status checking and updating options

🗣️ WHAT YOUNG PEOPLE TOLD US

As part of developing this guide, we asked young South Africans what comes to mind when they think about local government elections.

Their responses reflected a mixture of frustration, hope, scepticism and determination.

Some questioned whether voting makes any difference.

Others saw voting as an important responsibility and a way to influence change.

Here are some of the voices we heard:

If some of these views sound familiar, you are not alone.

Many South Africans are asking the same questions, expressing the same concerns and wrestling with the same hopes about local government elections.

The next section explores some of the most common thoughts people have about voting and participation in local government elections.

A Final Thought

Whether we participate in elections or not, local government continues to operate - sometimes effectively, sometimes not - but its decisions still affect our communities.

Councils will still be elected. Budgets will still be approved. Policies will still be adopted. Decisions will still be made about the services, infrastructure and opportunities that shape daily life in our communities.

The question is therefore not whether local government will affect us. It already does.

The question is whether we choose to play a role in determining who will make those decisions on our behalf.

Participation does not guarantee that we will always get the outcome we want. But it does ensure that our voices form part of the conversation and that our communities have a seat at the table.