On 21 September 2000 the National Assembly approved important amendments to the Municipal Structures Act. The National Council of Provinces Approved the bill on 3 October. It is expected that the Local Government Structures Amendment Bill B51B-2000 will become law by middle-October.

District municipalities, having shared authority with local municipalities will be a significant innovation brought by the final phase of local government transformation. It is therefore important to clearly define the role and function of 47 district municipalities that will be established on election day in November.

A district municipality covers the same area as the local municipalities within its district. In other words, a number of local municipalities together make up a district municipality.

The Constitution requires from provinces to monitor, support and, if necessary intervene in a municipality. The new local government dispensation, establishing metropolitan, district and local municipalities, will impact on the way provinces execute their constitutional obligations of monitoring and support. This article examines how provinces should respond to those challenges.

The SALGA Elections Strategy comprises two main focus areas. Part one of the strategy relates to the Record of Understanding that SALGA entered into with the IEC. Part two represents SALGA specific issues regarding the elections and the period immediately after elections.

The Board will continue to consider boundary changes but for purposes of the elections the Board is only considering submissions which should clearly be made now.

As from the day of the forthcoming local government elections, local government's legislative and executive powers are going to be squarely based on the Constitution.

Section 3 of the Local Government: Municipal Systems Bill provides that (1) Municipalities must within the constitutional system of co-operative governance envisaged in section 41 of the Constitution seek to integrate the exercise of their legislative and executive authority with the policies, programmes, legislation and institutional arrangements of the national and provincial spheres of government.

Sixteen cross-border municipalities at district, metropolitan and local level, will be established come the municipal elections in November. This is a bold experiment which is not without its political and administrative difficulties.

The demarcation process has created a rationalised system of municipal governance: 6 metropolitan municipalities, 47 district municipalities, with the latter having some 232 local municpalities. These municipalities vary enormously in terms of their economic, financial, social and administrative bases.

City of Cape Town's By-law 1959 of 1966 requires any person, intending to display a sign, to make a written application for prior approval by the municipality. Displaying or attempting to display a new sign without prior approval constitutes an offence.

Prior to the previous amalgamation process, some municipal councils engaged in measures designed to bind the succeeding councils into an array of long term agreements. Such measures included the entering into of long term employment contracts, granting of additional remuneration and allowances, leasing of council land and property for extended periods and other similar schemes that had an adverse effect on the finances of municipalities.

The new electoral system for local government represents a novel and intricate combination of party representation and ward representation. The system is outlined in the Municipal Structures Act 117 of 1998 (MSA) and in the forthcoming Local Government: Municipal Electorate Act.

The establishment of 285 new municipalities is to come into effect on the day the forthcoming elections are held. The six metropolitan municipalities, 47 district municipalities and the 232 local municipalities are to be established in terms of the section 12 notices.

At the Africities 2000 summit, held in Windhoek on 15-20 May 2000, ministers of local government and of finance on the African continent, mayors, leaders and members of local government associations in Africa, researchers and eminent personalities from Africa and beyond adopted the Windhoek Declaration, which includes the followiing " African Vision on Decentralisation":

The formation of interim forums, commissions or committees is one of the key measures MEC's are taking to facilitate the transition to the new dispensation. Such a structure has already been established for the Cape Metropolitan area and transformation forums for the new district municipalities in the Western Cape are to be established this month. Similar processes are under way in other provinces as well.

Access to tender documents

The final phase of the transition at local government level is due to commence during 2000. Preparation for the final phase has commenced with the redetermination of municipal boundaries across the country.

The Municipal Structures Act 117 of 1998, in accordance with section 157 (4) of the Constitution, instructs the Municipal Demarcation Board to delimit all metropolitan municipalities and all local municipalities that should have wards into wards, after consultation with the Electoral Commission.

The limits of section 26 of the Constitution ( the right to access to adequate housing) and section 28 (1) (c) (children's right to shelter) were recently tested in the case of Grootboom and Others v Oostenberg Municipality, Cape Metropolitan Council, Premier of the Province of the Western Cape, National Housing Board, and Government of the Republic of South Africa.

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) is an institution established in terms of Chapter 9 of the Constitution and mandated to manage elections at all spheres of government, including local government. The IEC is a permanent body, unlike its predecessor, with its Head Office in Pretoria, 9 provincial offices and Local Electorate Officers at municipal level.

In 1999 (1) LGL, Bulletin 6, the impact of the recent case of Fedsure Life Assurance Ltd v Greater Johannesburg Transitional Metropolitan Council1999 (1) SA 374 (CC) in confirming the new constitutional status of local government structures was highlighted. In this case the Constitutional Court held that 'a local government is no longer public body exercising delegated powers. Its council is a deliberative legislative assembly with legislative and executive powers recognised in the Constitution itself.

Two court cases dealing with evictions: Case One: Vanessa Ross v South Peninsula Municipality (1999) JOL 5298 (C). Case Two: Grootboom and Others v Oostenberg Municipality, Cape Metropolitan Council, Premier of the Province of the Western Cape, National Housing Board and Government of the Republic of South Africa (Case no: 6826/99)0

The entrenchment of multi-lingualism in section 6 of the 1996 Constitution confronts the South African government with the obligation to design and put into practice a language policy that will give effect to the constitutional directives on multi-lingualism.

The intergovernmental Relations Working Group of SALGA has been considering a number of Bills with a view to make recommendations to the organisation on the mandates it has to give to its representatives in the NCOP. These include the Open Democracy Bill, Preferential Procument Policy Framework Bill and the Transitional National Land Transport Bill.

Durban Central Transitional Metropolitan Council (DCTMC) prosecuted Mr Winchester for failing to obtain licenses for his dogs. The DCTMC had acquired this power to prosecute by delegation from the Attorney-General through section 8 of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977.

The lack of a structured relationship between provincial local government associations and the provinces has been a burning issue. Unlike SALGA, which has the right o take part in the NCOP, and participate in national intergovernmental fora such as MINMECS, provincial associations have no formal communication and cooperation links with their provinces.

To: the Minister for Provincial and Local Government, Government Departments, MEC's responsible for Local Government, SALGA and Affiliates, all municipalities, magistrates, houses of traditional leaders, IEC, media and demarcation stakeholders.

On 15 October 1999, the Constitutional Court laid down judgments on a range of constitutional challenges to the Structures Act 117 of 1998 that had been brought forward b the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provincial executives. Most of the complaints levelled against the Act had to do with the constitutional scheme of the division of powers between the three spheres of government in relation to local government.