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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

unicity councilors, South Africa, ethnicity, representation, institutions

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Political Science

Abstract

During the year 2000, five of South Africa’s most populated regions—Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, Pretoria, and Ekurhuleni—underwent a consolidation of power that combined many local city councils into a large unicity council. In each case the official goal of the consolidation was to increase the efficiency of service delivery, benefit from economies of scale, and avoid duplication of services. Proponents of the action cited the examples of New York City and Toronto for support. An example of how this consolidation took place is Cape Town, which combined seven previous metropolitan local councils—Blauwberg Municipality, City of Cape Town, City of Tygerberg, Helderberg Municipality, Oostenberg Municipality, South Peninsula Municipality, and the Cape Metropolitan Council—to create a unicity council with exactly 200 members. 1 The other unicity councils have between 180 and 220 councilors. Under the new system, half of the councilors are elected through proportional representation while the other half are elected from wards, which are areas of the municipality containing approximately 10,000- 30,000 people. With the new municipal structure, it is unclear who councilors feel they represent. Are they primarily representatives of their party? The ward where they are deployed? Or agents of the city? Are the new institutions working as they were designed? And considering South Africa’s history of ethnic conflict, what impact are these new institutions having on representing all groups equally?

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