After the 2019 national and provincial government elections, Parliament revived deliberations on the Municipal Structures Amendment Bill. The Bill seeks to strengthen oversight and governance in local government. Many of the proposed amendments touch on issues that have been prevalent in local government for the longest of time. This report provides a summary of the proceedings of a webinar on the Municipal Structures Amendment Bill (as well as the Municipal Systems Amendment Bill that is covered in a different report).

Good governance and administrative excellence in local government must ensure effective service delivery to communities. This requires capable, knowledgeable and expert senior municipal managers. This article reports the findings of an empirical survey commissioned by the Local Government Sector Education and Training Authority (LGSETA) to establish support required by senior municipal managers. Such support is especially essential for those managers who do not comply with the minimum competency regulations. The survey also intended to assess current levels of compliance with Municipal Regulations on minimum competency levels and to enhance integrated development planning (IDP) capacity in the local government sector.

How can we improve the quality of governance in municipalities? What do we need to do in local government to promote stability, allow development to take place and create sustainable communities? A recent research report by the Local Government Sector Education and Training Authority (LGSETA) examined these issues.

On 27 October 2020, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ruled in The Premier for the Province of Gauteng and Others v Democratic Alliance and Others that the municipal council of the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality must be reinstated. This article discusses the legal and political consequences of the judgment for the City of Tshwane and similarly situated municipalities.

In South Africa, with many government-supported growth initiatives prioritising the creation of low-skill jobs and the development of high-level skills, a 2020 research study by the Local Government Sector Education and Training Authority (LGSETA) has examined the effect of the skills mismatch. This study of local government established that South Africa is faced with a prevalence of under-qualified staff and mirrors a 2019 Department of Higher Education (DHET) study of South Africa as a whole showing that almost one-third of workers are mismatched by their field of study. This mismatch can be addressed through on-the-job training, retraining, and new-skill acquisition.

The Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs invited members of the public to submit written comments on the Local Government: Municipal Demarcation (Draft) Bill (the Bill) before it is introduced to the National Assembly. The deadline for the submission of comments was the 29th of July 2020. Once adopted into law, the Bill will replace the current Local Government: Municipal Demarcation Act of 1998 which, among other things, regulates the demarcation of municipal boundaries and provides for the establishment and functions of the Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB). This article summarises key provisions of the Bill, particularly those which seek to make significant changes to the Municipal Demarcation Act.

Evidence has shown that women are more actively involved in elections as voters, than as candidates in local government elections. In the 2016 elections, for example, and according to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), 58 percent of voters were women. However, the picture looks very different when it comes to women participating as candidates. Although having women elected into local government is not in itself a guarantee that the elected women will advance women’s issues, not having gender-balanced local governments, creates a democratic deficit. This article starts from the premise that as we look forward to the 2021 elections we ought to take lessons from earlier elections in order to make our election processes more gender transformative.