MUNICIPAL TYPES

WHAT ARE MUNICIPAL TYPES?

The Municipal Structures Act defines the constitutional provision for "municipal types" to describe the different ways in which municipal councils can be organised to perform their powers and duties effectively. There are many different municipal types.

WHY ARE THERE DIFFERENT MUNICIPAL TYPES?

There is no one "best way" to organise all municipal councils. The Municipal Structures Act therefore provides for different municipal types to meet the needs of different municipal councils.

Municipal councils may differ from each other in a number of ways:

• Municipalities fall into different categories. The Constitution says that there are three categories of municipality and that national legislation must define the different types of municipality that may be established within each category.
• Municipal councils are different sizes, and are elected in different ways. Because municipal councils are all different, they need to organise themselves in different ways to ensure that they operate effectively and efficiently.

The different types of municipality defined in the Municipal Structures Act take account of the fact that not all municipal councils are the same. The Constitution says that national legislation must define the different types of municipality that may be established within each category.

Each municipal type is made up from a combination of the five systems of municipal government described in the first part of this document.

The ways in which systems of municipal government can be combined to form municipal types are described later in this document. Before this, we look at each system of municipal government in more detail.