Coalition agreements must be made transparent and should be based on principle rather than solely on personal gain.

The Weekend View

The ministry of cooperative governance & traditional affairs (Cogta) has called for public comment on the municipal structures' amendment bill which seeks to give guidelines on how municipalities are governed. The Bill was introduced to deal with the instability and dysfunction that has been associated with local coalitions, and specifically in several metros. The bill proposes changing municipalities with a mayoral executive system, in which no party obtained a majority of seats, to a collective executive system within a prescribed period and to provide for the election or removal from office of municipal office-bearers to be by a show of hands, among others. Meanwhile, Non-governmental organisation My Vote Counts agrees that there is a need for some legislation to provide a structure in which coalition governments can operate more effectively but says the process must not be used as an opportunity by dominant political parties to cement their power at the expense of voters... for more on this Bongiwe Zwane spoke to Nkosikhulule Nyembezi , Policy Analyst and Chairperson of the Election Monitoring Network