The political economy of coalitions in the South African local sphere of government.

Abstract

This paper analyses the political economy of political party coalitions in the South African local sphere of government. The focus is on the political control of the local government in South Africa, which has gravitated from a single political party, mainly the African National Congress (ANC), to coalitions with other smaller political parties. This form of governance has been a popular method in the local sphere of government, especially in all those local municipalities where no political party, including independent candidates, won the elections with 50% or more. However, the effectiveness of this form of governance has been highly contested and questioned in the literature. This is because a coalition embeds different political parties with different policy documents, a programme of action, and ideological positions, making effective collaboration a mammoth task to achieve. The study employs a qualitative research approach, exploiting the use of extant literature, namely municipality records, government reports, and newspaper articles. It uses social exchange theory as the study’s theoretical framework for analysing the political economy of political party coalitions in the South African local sphere of government. The aim is to describe how political party coalitions affected municipal service delivery between 2016 and 2021. Several categories of the impact on service delivery emerging from political party coalitions in local government in South Africa are noted. These are governance and functionality, political interests, transnationalism, and short-term and long-term effects. The study provides recommendations on how to improve the quality of service under the burgeoning shift in the governance paradigm of South African municipalities.