Beukes, Jennica2025-12-032025-12-032025https://hdl.handle.net/10566/21497Coalition governments have the potential to promote inclusive, responsive and innovative governance and service delivery. However, they are inherently more complex than single-party governments due to the involvement of multiple coalition partners, whose diverse interests often poses a risk to political stability and effective governance. In municipalities, political stability is essential to ensure that municipal councils govern effectively and deliver essential services. Periods of political volatility in coalition governments can result in governance failures that adversely impact the functioning of municipalities. Where these failures affect municipalities’ ability to meet its executive obligations, municipalities become vulnerable to section 139 interventions, which include the dissolution of municipal councils. This qualitative study analyses international coalition traditions, court judgments and the institutional framework of South Africa’s local government to identify key barriers to political stability and service delivery in municipalities where coalition governance is the norm. The findings reveal that coalition-led municipalities often experience political instability caused by intra- and inter-party conflicts, rent-seeking motives or opportunistic behaviour, frequent termination of councillors’ party membership, removal of political office-bearers, biased enforcement of rules and orders, and increasing fragmentation. These constitute serious governance risks, as they undermine the ability of municipal councils to exercise their legislative and executive functions effectively and efficiently.enSouth AfricaCoalitionsCooperative GovernanceMultiparty GovernanceAlliancesThesis