Municipal Structures’ Amendment Bill must be transparent: Analyst

Policy Analyst and Chairperson of the Election Monitoring Network, Nkosikhulule Nyembezi says the Municipal Structures’ Amendment Bill should be transparent and foster harmony in order to deal with the instability and dysfunction that has been associated with local coalitions, specifically in several metros.

The Ministry of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) has called for public comment on the municipal structures’ Amendment Bill which seeks to give guidelines on how municipalities are governed.

Nyembezi says citizens should be able to hold politicians accountable when the bill is amended.

“What should come out of this bill as a positive is that the agreements upon which parties forge to form the municipal counsel. They must be made transparent. What we’ve seen in the past is that most of the questions, agreement, they are not based on principle or based on fostering harmony in terms of the election manifestos that brought these candidates to the counsel, now that is a switch we must see.”

Full interview below: