The City Council
The City Council is the highest structure of local government in Cape Town.
Virtual Meeting
What does Council do?
The City Council is the executive body of the City and is responsible for making top-level decisions about how Cape Town is governed. The Council is also the legislative body of the City and makes and implements by-laws, which are local laws specifically created for Cape Town. Council sets the
City tariffs for rates and services in Cape Town, decides what the
City’s budget is and how it will be spent, and enters into service level agreements with private agencies that do business with the City.
Council also debates local government issues, ratifies or rejects proposals and disposes of capital assets. When the City Council makes its decisions, it is guided by the
Integrated Development Plan (IDP), a framework that outlines how the City plans to reach its goals. The by-laws and policies that Council decides on are monitored by the Portfolio Committees, or ‘Section 79’ committees.
Council also elects the Executive Mayor, the Executive Deputy Mayor and the Speaker and appoints the City Manager.The City’s Executive Management Team is responsible for ensuring the implementation of the City Council’s decisions.
Who makes up the membership of Council?
Council is made up of 231 members. This membership comprises 116 ward councillors, and the other 115 members are proportional representative (PR) councillors. PR councillors are members of political parties. They are given positions in Council based on the percentage of votes their political party received in the local elections. The members of Council serve for a term of five years.
View the number of Council seats held by each political party.
The members of Council provide a vital link between the communities they serve and the City’s governance structures. Councillors are responsible for promoting the needs and interests of the people they represent, regardless of whether these people voted for the councillor or not. Although not all councillors are employed by the City on a full-time professional basis, they are all bound by a Code of Conduct.
Councillors are also required to sign a
Declaration of Interests document.
The Executive Mayor
The
Executive Mayor is the elected leader of local government in Cape Town and has specific roles and responsibilities derived from legislation, as well as decision-making authority as delegated by Council.
The Executive Deputy Mayor
The Executive Deputy Mayor exercises the powers and performs the duties of the Executive Mayor if absent.
The Speaker
The main function of the Speaker is to preside at Council meetings as chairperson and to determine when Council will convene. The Speaker also enforces the
Code of Conduct for all councillors.
The Chief Whip
The Chief Whip is a member of Council whose function is to build and maintain relationships with all party whips. The Chief Whip assists the Speaker to maintain order in the Council Chamber with the assistance of the party whips. In addition, the Chief Whip ensures that all of the political parties are represented on the various committees of Council.
Council committees
Please note
Council committees page under construction: The information on Council committees is currently being finalised and will be available shortly. We apologise for the inconvenience and will make the information available as soon as possible.
See the
Membership List Of All Council Committees.
Council meetings
Council meets to consider municipal affairs on average once per month and is empowered to take decisions regarding all matters within its sphere of jurisdiction. Items for consideration by Council are added to the agenda and, where no consensus exists, these items are debated and put to the vote. All decisions of Council are recorded in the minutes of the meeting and any further action is authorised to be carried out by the relevant line department or other responsible party. Minutes of all Council meetings open to the public are available on this website via the meeting calendar.
In order to reduce the demand on Council, certain decision-making authority has been delegated to other municipal structures via its System of Delegations.
All Council meetings are open to the public and we also livestream Council proceedings.
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