If we want a municipality that listens and delivers, it helps to know exactly who’s who, what they do and how to reach them. 

Your Ward Councillor

In local elections, you elect a ward councillor to represent your area (or “ward”). This person is your closest link to the municipal council. They are responsible for your concerns, helping fix service delivery issues, and keeping you informed about municipal progress and decisions. Ward councillors are meant to be easy to reach and must assist you as far as they are able to, to get your problems fixed. Watch this short video by the Civic Academy SA to get a good summary. 

Find the contact details for your ward councillor here, and more about how to hold them accountable here. 

Proportional Representative (PR) Councillors

PR councillors don’t represent a single ward. Instead, they’re chosen by political parties, based on the votes those parties get in the election. They still sit on the council, vote on decisions, and are supposed to engage the public, which means they should also listen to community concerns and carry them to council.

Your Mayor and the Mayoral Committee

The mayor is a councillor elected to be the political head of a municipality. Their role is to lead the municipal council and provide oversight, especially in policy-making and important decisions. You can find your mayor's contact here.

Metros and most larger municipalities are led by Executive Mayors. The mayor holds significant executive powers and is responsible for key decisions, although they are supported by a mayoral committee made up of councillors. The executive mayor is the main decision-maker, with the committee providing advice and support.

In Collective Executive Systems, executive power is shared among a group of councillors who form the executive committee. The mayor is one of these members and chairs the committee, but decisions are made collectively, usually by majority vote. No single person has executive authority. This is common in smaller municipalities, but some bigger ones like eThekwini also use this system.

Oversight Committees

Municipal councils set up committees of up to 10 councillors to keep an eye on different areas, like water, sanitation, or finance. Contacting the councillors working on a committee related to an issue in your neighbourhood can be a way to agitate for action on an issue. An especially important committee is the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC), which is tasked with making sure public funds are spent as they should be. Committees must meet at least 4 times a year. Contacting your councillor is the easiest way to connect with a council committee.    

The Speaker of the Municipal Council

The speaker is a councillor too, but their job is to run council meetings: setting agendas, managing debates, and making sure rules are followed. Along with the mayor, the speaker must make sure that council documents are made publicly available. The speaker enforces the councillors’ Code of Conduct so they play a vital role in holding councillors accountable. You can find your speaker’s contact here.  

Whips

Each political party in your municipality’s council is led by a party whip. Whips keep councillors in line with party positions and policies, and encourage cohesion and coherence in the council. They use their authority to both encourage and discipline councillors. If your councillor is not being responsive to you, you can contact the party whip to take action. Party whips are led by a chief whip in the council. You can find your chief whip’s contact here. To connect with the whip of the party you support, connect with a councillor from your party in your municipality.

Your municipal manager

The municipal manager is the appointed head of the local government administration. Municipal managers must take action on decisions made by the council and manage the day-to-day functions of municipalities, like service delivery. Municipal managers are supposed to manage staff, coordinate departments, and ensure that your municipality is running properly. You can find the contacts for municipal managers here. 

Heads of local government departments

Each local municipality has dedicated departments like Water and Sanitation Services, Community and Social Development Services and Waste Management. The specific departments vary from municipality to municipality. The heads of these departments are appointed, not elected and are directly accountable to the municipal manager. Each of them manages staff who do the work of service delivery. With FixLocal’s report tool, you can contact the right department directly when you need to raise an issue**.**

Acknowledgments

Author: Maru Attwood

Material adapted from Activist's Guide to Making Local Government Work

Thanks to Professor Tinashe Chigwata of the Dullah Omar Institute for his feedback on fixlocal’s local government series.

Photo by Gauta Nkwe on Unsplash