With just 100 days until the November 4 local government elections, South Africans will soon enter the voting booth to decide who should lead their municipalities over the next term.
But while public attention will rightly fall on campaign promises and election-day fatigue, an equally critical test of local democracy is already unfolding behind the scenes — whether municipalities can move from the sixth to the seventh administration without losing momentum, institutional memory or service delivery focus.
Elections are the heartbeat of local democracy, but democracy does not end when a ballot is cast or when election results are announced.
For municipalities, the period before, during and after an election is a demanding governance moment. It tests whether institutions are strong enough to continue serving communities while political leadership changes, councils are reconstituted and new mandates are established.
As the unified institutional voice for the country’s 257 municipalities, the South African Local Government Association (Salga) views municipal transitions not just as political events, but critical governance processes that require planning, coordination and support to protect the continuity of operations and services.
The lessons of the 2016 and 2021 local government transitions remain fresh. Across the sector, municipalities had to navigate governance instability, complex coalition dynamics, delays in decision-making, high councillor turnover, loss of institutional memory and pressure on service delivery.
These experiences showed that unmanaged transitions can weaken oversight, slow down administrative processes and create uncertainty at the very moment when communities expect stability. They also showed that transitions must be prepared for long before election day.
A roadmap for orderly municipal transitions
It is for this reason that Salga has developed and is actively championing its Transitional Management Plan — a practical roadmap to help municipalities move from one administration to the next in an orderly way.
It covers the pre-election, election and post-election phases, and it gives municipalities a structured way to think about continuity, leadership handover, councillor support, inaugural meetings, political offices and service delivery risks.
The purpose is not to interfere with democratic choice. It is to ensure that while democracy renews political leadership, communities do not experience a pause in governance.
The Transitional Management Plan is built on seven pillars:
1. Ensuring the continued functionality of the administration
Municipal administrations must remain focused on their legal, financial and service delivery responsibilities even as the political environment becomes more intense.
Water, sanitation, refuse removal, electricity distribution, billing systems, emergency services, infrastructure maintenance and community support cannot be placed on hold because of the election season.
Municipal managers and senior officials have a duty to keep the institution stable, lawful and responsive. Salga’s support is aimed at making sure administrations remain insulated from unnecessary disruption and are ready to brief incoming councils on the real state of municipal affairs.
2. Ensuring the continued functionality of political structures
Councils, council committees and oversight structures remain important until the legal end of the term. Even during an election period, governance cannot become ceremonial. Councils must still process urgent matters, exercise oversight and ensure accountability.
This is particularly important in an environment where political competition may intensify. Mature democracy requires political actors to campaign vigorously, but also to respect the continuing obligations of the institutions they serve.
3. Providing service delivery support to the Independent Electoral Commission
Elections do not happen in a vacuum; they happen in communities, wards, public facilities and municipal spaces.
Municipalities often provide practical support that enables elections to run smoothly and thus protect both democratic participation and public confidence in the electoral process.
4. Developing handover reports
This is one of the most important tools for protecting institutional memory.
A proper handover report helps incoming councillors understand what has been achieved, what remains incomplete, what risks must be managed and what commitments are already in place.
5. Supporting the welfare of exiting councillors
Councillors are public representatives who carry demanding responsibilities, often under difficult conditions. Some will return after the elections; others will not.
An orderly transition must recognise this human dimension while ensuring that public office is exited responsibly and lawfully.
6. Preparing for inaugural meetings
These meetings are where new councils begin their work, office-bearers are elected and political structures start taking shape. If they are poorly prepared, instability can begin from day one.
7. Managing the transition of staff in political offices
Changes in political leadership also affect staff employed in political offices. Employment arrangements linked to outgoing councillors or office-bearers must therefore be managed lawfully and fairly.
Preparing for coalition governance
The execution of the Transition Management Plan is even more urgent because coalition governments have become a lasting feature of local politics.
Coalition councils increased from 27 after the 2016 local government elections to 70 after the 2021 elections, showing a major shift in the political landscape.
Coalition governance can deepen democracy by encouraging cooperation and broader representation. But when coalitions are weak, unstable or poorly managed, decisions can be postponed, councils can become preoccupied with politics, and governance and service delivery can suffer.
Coalitions must therefore be approached with realism and maturity. They are set to remain deeply entrenched in local government beyond 2026, and the systems that support local government must be strong enough to manage that reality.
Salga has been actively involved in shaping the policy conversation on coalition governance, contributing to the development of the Local Government: Municipal Structures Amendment Bill of 2024, commonly referred to as the Coalition Bill.
This bill seeks to create a legal framework for coalition formation and management, including matters such as coalition agreements, executive systems, removal of office-bearers and thresholds.
However, the reality is this bill is unlikely to be finalised before the November 4 elections because of the parliamentary process required.
This makes transition management even more important. While legislative reform continues, municipalities cannot wait. They must use available tools, guidance, standing rules and structured planning to reduce disruption.
Salga’s current work is therefore focused on engagement and preparedness. Municipal managers have already been engaged through the National Municipal Managers Forum. The association has also convened political leadership platforms, including mayors and speakers, to deliberate on transitional arrangements before and after the 2026 local government elections.
These engagements are part of a deliberate effort to align political principals, accounting officers and the broader sector around one message: elections must renew local democracy without weakening service delivery continuity.
A defining moment for local government
The 2026 local government elections carry particular significance for Salga as they coincide with the association’s 30th anniversary. The convergence presents an opportunity to strengthen institutional memory, leadership transition, democratic reflection and future fitness.
For three decades, Salga has helped shape the voice of organised local government, supported municipalities, advocated for reforms and created platforms for shared learning.
As South Africa moves towards the seventh administration, that legacy must now be expressed through practical leadership: helping the sector prepare, stabilise and renew itself for better service delivery.
The 2026 transition can become a turning point. It can show that South Africa’s local democracy is maturing — not because it avoids disagreement, but because it can manage change without abandoning communities.
In the end, the real test of the seventh administration of local governance will not only be who wins office. It will be whether municipalities are ready to continue serving residents from the first day of the new term.
If council oversight continues, if records are preserved, if new councillors are properly inducted and if communities experience stability rather than confusion, then democracy will have passed a deeper test.
This article was sponsored by Salga.
