Whose power is it?

What we did: we took the ten 2026 local government manifestos that Ukweli has analysed and counted the findings as they stood on 7 October 2026. We read the Constitution’s Schedules 4 and 5 and the sections quoted here on the government’s own website, and, from the national laws listed under Sources, the sections that bear on municipal powers. We checked every quoted party passage against the party’s own PDF. Sources are listed at the end.

We also keep Integrity Watch, a public register of documents that were corrected, withdrawn, refunded or punished after someone found made-up material in them.

This folio is about a different kind of check. It asks whether a promise in an election manifesto is one that the party making it can deliver after winning a council.

The question #

A manifesto is a list of promises. In many countries, a voter reading one cannot easily tell which promises belong to the office on the ballot paper and which belong to someone else.

South Africa’s Constitution writes down what a municipality may do, which gives a defined list to check promises against. It speaks of national, provincial and local spheres of government, and each has its own powers. A mayor can promise to fix a council road. A mayor cannot promise to change the law on immigration. Between those two sit many promises that are harder to place. The same question applies wherever people vote.

Ukweli’s Local Government Elections (LGE) 2026 Manifesto Engine tests that for the ten parties below.

ACDPRead the assessment →ActionSARead the assessment →AMMRead the assessment →ANCRead the assessment →DARead the assessment →EFFRead the assessment →FF PlusRead the assessment →IFPRead the assessment →SACPRead the assessment →UDMRead the assessment →

Each button opens that party’s assessment on ukweli.io in a new tab, so this page stays open. Party logos belong to the parties and are shown for identification only. Ukweli is not affiliated with any party.

Each promise is quoted word for word, with the page it comes from. Each promise Ukweli assessed is then checked against the Constitution’s lists of what a municipality does, with a table of powers built from the national laws. Other parties are contesting the elections, and this folio does not cover them.

What a council can lawfully do #

Section 156(1) of the Constitution says what a municipality may administer. It has executive authority over “the local government matters listed in Part B of Schedule 4 and Part B of Schedule 5”, and over “any other matter assigned to it by national or provincial legislation”.

The Constitution adds three things. A council may exercise any power reasonably necessary for, or incidental to, the effective performance of its functions (section 156(5)). National and provincial government must assign a council a Part A matter, by agreement and subject to any conditions, if the matter necessarily relates to local government, would be run most effectively locally and the council has the capacity (section 156(4)). And even on the lists, national and provincial law regulate how a council does the job (section 155(7)).

Those two lists are defined. Part B of Schedule 4 has 15 items and Part B of Schedule 5 has 23. Among them are:

• “Electricity and gas reticulation”, which is the local network
• “Water and sanitation services limited to potable water supply systems and domestic waste-water and sewage disposal systems”
• “Municipal planning” and “Building regulations”
• “Municipal public transport” and “Stormwater management systems in built-up areas”
• “Municipal roads”, “Street lighting” and “Traffic and parking”
• “Refuse removal, refuse dumps and solid waste disposal” and “Cleansing”
• “Markets”, “Street trading” and “Trading regulations”
• “Local tourism”, “Municipal parks and recreation” and “Cemeteries, funeral parlours and crematoria”

The same subject can appear at two levels. “Tourism” is on Part A of Schedule 4, which lists areas where national and provincial government share the power to make law. “Local tourism” is on Part B. The same is true of public transport and of trade.

Other subjects appear only on Part A. Schedule 4 Part A lists “Agriculture”, “Education at all levels, excluding tertiary education”, “Health services”, “Housing”, “Industrial promotion” and “Welfare services”. None of them is on a municipal list in those words. Part B has “Municipal health services”.

Two more rules sit beside the lists. Section 152(1)(c) makes it an object of local government “to promote social and economic development”. Section 153(a) tells a municipality to structure and manage its administration, budgeting and planning “to promote the social and economic development of the community”. Section 152(2) adds a limit: a municipality must strive to achieve its objects “within its financial and administrative capacity”.

So a council can act on jobs, in the ways its listed, assigned and incidental powers allow. It does not hold jobs as a listed function.

What the readings found #

Ukweli found 2,170 promises in the ten manifestos. It could assess 1,570 of them. For the other 600, Ukweli could not reach one clear answer. Where a sentence held separate promises, Ukweli split it and assessed each part. Where the checks did not agree, or a sentence could not be split without breaking the promise, Ukweli marks the card “Could not be assessed by Ukweli” and leaves it out of the counts.

Of the 1,570, 192 are about the party’s own conduct, such as what its councillors will do or how it will behave. They are not a function of a council. That leaves 1,378 promises about council business. That is the base for everything in this folio.

Ukweli sorts those 1,378 into five groups, using the findings as they stood on 7 October 2026:

• A council’s own services: 317. The matter is on one of the municipal lists.
• How the council runs itself: 623. Staff, budgets, procurement, public participation and other administration.
• Shared with other spheres of government: 2. The power is split between spheres and neither leads.
• Led by another sphere, council has a role: 154. Another sphere leads, and the law gives the council a defined role.
• Outside a council’s listed functions: 282. The matter is not on the municipal lists, not about how the council runs itself, not shared between spheres, and not a matter where another sphere leads and the law gives the council a role.

The last two groups add up to 436. That is 31.6% of 1,378.

Three cautions go with that number.

First, it counts promises as written. One long promise and one short promise each count once. It says nothing about how important a promise is.

Second, “outside” does not mean another sphere holds the power. It means the matter is not on the municipal lists and does not fit the other groups. For some subjects, such as courts or immigration, another sphere does hold the power. For others, such as jobs, the answer is more mixed. The next section takes that apart.

Third, it is a count for the ten manifestos together. Ukweli does not score, rank or endorse any party, and this folio does not give a figure for one party against another.

Before this folio, an AI reader went through the outside promises that are not about jobs, one subject at a time. A second, separate AI reading found nine that might read more like a council’s own service than an outside matter. On the editor’s ruling, seven were moved and two stay as published. The seven carry the label “Editor’s ruling” on their cards. The figures here are after that change.

Ukweli reads a document before it goes out and tells you which of its claims, quotes and sources cannot be confirmed. Put a document through it →

Who holds the power, subject by subject #

The 282 outside promises fall into 14 groups. Thirteen are subjects with a reason in Ukweli’s table of powers that parties often promise but councils do not hold, and the reason is shown on each card. The fourteenth, “Subject not yet in the table”, holds 10 promises the table does not cover yet.

Jobs come first, and they are not one thing

143 of the 282 outside promises are about local economic development, jobs and enterprise. That is more than the other 13 groups put together.

Promoting social and economic development is an object of local government. No item on either municipal list is called economic development, employment or enterprise. A council does hold related powers: it can plan land use, support local tourism, regulate trading and run markets.

So a jobs promise can mean very different things. It can mean a national employment policy that no council controls. It can mean opening municipal land for a business park, or buying from local traders within the council’s procurement rules. And it can mean a general pledge to “support” or “promote” local business, which names no power at all.

Two AI readers, working separately from the promise text and a short rulebook, each read all 143 promises.

At least 7 promises are plainly national or provincial policy, such as reforming labour policy or a national grant. At least 14 rest on a power a council has, such as municipal land, infrastructure for business, local procurement or informal traders. For 115, both readers found no named power and no national actor. For 7, the readers differed.

This is a reading made for this folio. It is not on the manifesto pages, and the verdicts there are unchanged. The counts in this folio use the engine’s published verdicts, and the jobs reading was not applied to them. If the at least 14 were moved, 436 would become about 422 (30.6%). The point is how to read the 143. They are not evidence that jobs belong to someone else. They show how few jobs promises name a power at all.

The other 139

The other 139 outside promises are a clearer test of who holds the power, apart from the 10 with no subject yet. The Constitution and Ukweli’s table point in different places for each subject:

• Welfare and social development (27) and agriculture (18). “Welfare services” and “Agriculture” are on Part A of Schedule 4, which covers areas where national and provincial government share the power to make law. Neither is on a municipal list.
• Schools (5) and hospitals (9). “Education at all levels, excluding tertiary education” and “Health services” are also on Part A of Schedule 4. The municipal list has “Municipal health services”, but hospitals and schools are not on it.
• Land reform (15), the courts (12), national and provincial oversight of municipalities (11), mining (7) and immigration (4). No item on either municipal list covers any of these.
• Funding (14). An Act of Parliament must provide for “the equitable division of revenue raised nationally among the national, provincial and local spheres of government”, and for the conditions on money paid to municipalities. A municipality may impose “rates on property and surcharges on fees for services”, but other taxes only “if authorised by national legislation”. A council receives its share. It does not set the national rules.
• Water (5) and load-shedding, the scheduled power cuts (2). The municipal water item is limited to “potable water supply systems and domestic waste-water and sewage disposal systems”, and the electricity item is “reticulation”. A promise that reaches beyond a network, such as bulk water or ending load-shedding (the scheduled national power cuts), can go past what the item covers.
• No subject yet (10). Ukweli’s table has no subject for these promises yet, and the card says so.

An outside promise is not a false one. A council can still lobby, partner with or press the government that holds the power. The question to put to a candidate is who will deliver it, and how.

The 2021 echo #

Three of the ten parties, the ANC, the DA and the EFF, also published manifestos for the previous local elections, in 2021, and Ukweli could compare them. Ukweli compared 392 of their 2026 promises with each party’s own 2021 text. In all, Ukweli’s check found a matching 2021 passage for 32 of the 392. For the other 360 the card says “no matching 2021 passage found by Ukweli’s check”. The cards show the passage beside the 2026 promise.

For the rest, it found no match. That does not prove nothing was said.

The matches vary in strength. Some are close, and some are looser. We chose pairs where the same matter is clearly in both. Each pair below is the party’s own words, and each passage has been checked against the party’s own PDF. The quotation marks show where the party’s words start and stop. An MMC, or member of the mayoral committee, is a councillor an executive mayor appoints to assist the mayor.

ANC, 2021 and 2026

DA, 2021 and 2026

EFF, 2021 and 2026

Ukweli does not say whether any of these promises was kept, or whether it was a good idea.

Six questions to put to any candidate #

These questions work for any candidate and any party. They are ours, not the law’s.