ABSTRACT
The adoption of the 1996 Constitution of South Africa fundamentally changed the structure of government in the country. Local government, constituted by 257 municipalities of varying sizes, is recognized as a distinct ‘sphere’ of government with executive and legislative powers that are vested in democratically elected municipal councils. Although local governments enjoy a certain degree of fiscal, legislative and executive autonomy, they share certain powers with national and provincial government and are generally subject to regulation by these spheres. This chapter examines how the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court has helped in delineating local government’s autonomy in the context of South Africa’s federal system of government. It argues that, in many of the cases, local government has been successful in effectively asserting its authority and that the court’s judgments have generally had a decentralizing effect, especially in the area of land-use management, establishing important principles that shape current understanding of local government’s constitutionally guaranteed powers vis-à-vis other spheres of government.
