## Facts

- Two provincial governments (Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal) brought direct constitutional challenges to provisions of the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act 117 of 1998.
- The Act was part of the post-constitutional restructuring of local government, intended to establish municipalities nationwide and regulate their internal structures and electoral arrangements before upcoming local elections.
- The provinces alleged that several provisions transferred constitutionally assigned provincial and municipal decision-making power to national institutions (the President, the responsible Minister, and related bodies).
- The challenges asserted that the Act constrained provincial discretion over municipal establishment and structure, and diminished municipal councils’ authority over internal governance choices.
- The Constitutional Court granted direct access due to urgency and consolidated the matters for hearing and decision.

## Issues

1. Whether Parliament may legislate in detailed terms on the establishment, categories, and internal structures of municipalities, or whether doing so impermissibly intrudes on powers reserved to provinces and municipal councils under the constitutional allocation of functions.
2. Whether provisions assigning decision-making roles to national executive actors and related institutions are consistent with the constitutional design for local government.
3. Whether the Act respects co-operative government requirements and the institutional integrity of provincial and local spheres, including limits on one sphere assuming the powers of another.

## Decision

- The Constitutional Court granted direct access and decided the consolidated applications in a single judgment.
- The Court upheld the general validity of the Municipal Structures Act as national legislation implementing the constitutional framework for local government.
- The Court nevertheless found that certain provisions (or parts of provisions) went beyond permissible national framework regulation by effectively substituting national decisions for choices constitutionally left to provinces or municipal councils.
- The Court declared those provisions invalid and provided remedial relief that preserved the Act’s overall scheme while removing unconstitutional constraints.
- A separate judgment agreed in broad outline with the constitutional approach but would have invalidated a broader set of provisions viewed as overly restrictive of provincial and municipal autonomy.

## Legal Principles

- The constitutional system comprises national, provincial, and local spheres that are distinctive, interdependent, and interrelated; each must respect the constitutional status, powers, and functions of the others and may not assume powers not conferred by the Constitution.
- Parliament may enact national legislation setting norms and a framework for local government, including categories and general structuring principles, to give effect to constitutional provisions on local government.
- Framework regulation becomes unconstitutional when it removes meaningful provincial or municipal discretion in areas where the Constitution assigns those choices to provinces or municipal councils.
- Courts should, where reasonably possible, interpret legislation affecting intergovernmental relations to conform to the Constitution; invalidity is appropriate where a compliant interpretation is not plausibly available.
- Remedies may be tailored to preserve the operative framework of an important governance statute while severing or limiting provisions that impermissibly centralize authority.

## Conclusion

The Court sustained national authority to structure local government through framework legislation but held that national law may not displace constitutionally conferred provincial and municipal decision-making; accordingly, it preserved the Municipal Structures Act while invalidating provisions that crossed from regulation into usurpation.


Exec. Council of the Province of the W. Cape v. Minister for Provincial Affs. & Constitutional Dev. & Another; Exec. Council of KwaZulu-Natal v. President of the Republic of S. Afr. & Others, 2000 (1) S. Afr. L.R. 661 (S. Afr. Const. Ct. 1999)