Out of the shadows: towards a line between party and state in South African local government

Abstract This article aims to show the need for a clearer wall between political parties and state institutions in South Africa. The focus is on local government level where, it is argued, the absence of a dividing line between legislative and executive functions exacerbates the anti-democratic effects of a party/state conflation. The usurpation of local governance functions by unaccountable party-political structures is argued to frustrate urban autonomy and thereby to undermine the federal elements of the constitutional system of cooperative governance, not least through re-centralising local authority in national or regional structures. This undermines participatory and developmental local governance and complicates the achievement of objectives such as the Sustainable Development Goals.