In an effort to formalise coalitions and reduce the stranglehold of smaller political parties during talks to form municipal governments after elections fail to elect any one party with a clear majority, the government is considering changing the rules for how political parties obtain seats in councils, including introducing a 1% electoral threshold for parties seeking representation.
The amendments will have significant ramifications if they are implemented. Political parties that win a bigger portion of the votes will be further incentivised to work together to form more stable coalitions, something that looks set to become a permanent feature in the South African body politic.
Business Day understands from sources in both the ANC and DA that there is political will in South Africa’s two biggest parties to push the new legislation through parliament before the upcoming local government elections.
The amendments have already gone through a public consultation process and are now undergoing legal review before being presented to the portfolio committee of co-operative governance & traditional affairs for a vote and then being tabled to all parties in the house for a vote.
A signal to this end emerged in a written parliamentary reply by co-operative governance & traditional affairs minister Velenkosini Hlabisa to a question from ActionSA MP Lerato Ngobeni, who asked whether the government intends to amend the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act of 1998 to introduce a minimum threshold for parties to qualify for seats in municipal councils.
In his reply, Hlabisa confirmed the government has proposed introducing a 1% support threshold.
Under South Africa’s local government electoral system, councils are elected through a pure proportional representation system, meaning even small parties can secure representation if they receive enough votes to win a single seat.
The proposed threshold would change this by requiring political parties to obtain at least 1% of the vote in a municipality before qualifying for any representation in that council. In practical terms, parties that receive less than 1% of the vote would receive no seats, even if they might previously have qualified under the present system.
According to Hlabisa’s reply, the office of the chief state law adviser has issued a formal legal opinion on the draft amendments, raising questions about whether introducing such thresholds would be constitutionally permissible in the local government sphere.
The department is now considering these issues to ensure any amendment complies with the constitution.
Since the 2021 local government elections, several metropolitan councils have become highly fragmented, with multiple smaller parties holding single seats and often playing a decisive role in coalition negotiations.
One of the most cited examples is the City of Johannesburg, where Al Jama-ah secured the mayoralty despite limited electoral support. In the 2021 municipal elections, the party won three seats in the 270-member council, representing roughly 1% of the seats.
Al Jama-ah councillor Thapelo Amad was elected mayor on January 27 2023 after the removal of DA mayor Mpho Phalatse. Amad resigned in April 2023 ahead of a motion of no confidence and was replaced by fellow Al Jama-ah councillor Kabelo Gwamanda, who served as mayor until August 2024. when ANC councillor Dada Morero was elected mayor.
Though Al Jama-ah held only three seats in council, coalition negotiations enabled the party to secure the mayoralty. The episode has frequently been cited in debates about electoral reform as an example of how a party with limited electoral support can obtain significant executive power in a fragmented council.
The proposal is intended to reduce the number of small parties represented in councils, which analysts have previously said complicates coalition governance in municipalities.
The DA has been among the parties advocating for the introduction of electoral thresholds, arguing the present system allows parties with minimal vote shares to hold the balance of power in hung councils and exert disproportionate influence in coalition negotiations.
Debate around introducing such thresholds has been under way for several years as coalition instability intensified after the 2021 municipal elections. A broader legislative effort to regulate coalition governance at local government level was also introduced through the Local Government: Municipal Structures Amendment Bill in 2024, which sought to create a framework for managing coalition governments.
Advocates of an electoral threshold argue that requiring parties to secure a minimum level of support could reduce fragmentation and improve the stability of coalition governments. Critics, however, warn that such a measure could limit the ability of smaller political movements or community-based parties to gain representation.
The constitutional implications of the proposal remain a key focus of the legal review. Once the department has completed its internal assessment, the draft amendment bill will be prepared for submission to cabinet.
The government expects the bill to be submitted to cabinet for approval in April, after which, if approved, it will be introduced in parliament for legislative processing.
The intention is for the legislation to be passed before the next local government elections, though this will depend on parliament’s timetable, including committee deliberations, public participation processes and consideration by both houses.
• This article was updated with new information on March 16 2026.