How does your municipality know what your community needs? 🇿🇦🗳️ Good planning starts with understanding the people who live there. Municipalities need to put communities’ basic needs at the centre of how they plan, budget and deliver services.

Thought you had five years before the next local election? 🇿🇦🗳️ If a ward councillor seat becomes vacant, a by-election may be held to choose a replacement. It involves that ward, not the whole municipality, and the new councillor serves the rest of the council’s existing term.

Your ward councillor resigns, but the next municipal elections are still two years away. Now what? 🇿🇦🗳️ Yoh, that’s where a by-election comes in. It gives voters in that ward a way to choose a replacement before the next regular municipal elections.

Wait, where’s the ballot for the mayor? Yoh, there’s another step. 👀🇿🇦🗳️ Residents elect councillors. In municipalities with an executive mayor, the councillors then elect that mayor from among themselves. The executive mayor appoints the mayoral committee.

Parties can negotiate who gets which role. But who actually makes the appointments? 🇿🇦🗳️ When no party has a majority, choosing who to support for mayor can be a big part of coalition talks.

They’ve agreed to govern together. But what have they agreed to do? 👀🇿🇦🗳️ When no party has a majority, agreements made after the election can shape how your municipality is governed.

Whether it’s a big city or a smaller town, elected councillors must come together to form the new council. And if no party wins enough seats to govern alone? Yoh, that’s where negotiations and possible coalitions come in.

You came for election results. Suddenly, it’s a maths lesson. Yoh. 🇿🇦🗳️ Winning ward seats is only part of the picture. Those seats already count towards a party’s overall total. Proportional representation helps make the council reflect the support parties received from voters.

How does a vote become a seat in your municipal council? 🇿🇦🗳️ For ward seats, the candidate with the most votes wins. Other councillors enter through proportional representation, which helps make the council reflect the support political parties received from voters.