Verbatim text
(a) Category A: A municipality that has exclusive municipal executive and
legislative authority in its area.
(b) Category B: A municipality that shares municipal executive and legislative
authority in its area with a category C municipality within whose area it falls.
(c) Category C: A municipality that has municipal executive and legislative
authority in an area that includes more than one municipality.
(2) National legislation must define the different types of municipality that may be
established within each category.
(3) National legislation must—
(a) establish the criteria for determining when an area should have a single
category A municipality or when it should have municipalities of both category
B and category C;
(b) establish criteria and procedures for the determination of municipal
boundaries by an independent authority; and
(c) subject to section 229, make provision for an appropriate division of powers
and functions between municipalities when an area has municipalities of
both category B and category C. A division of powers and functions between
a category B municipality and a category C municipality may differ from the
division of powers and functions between another category B municipality and
that category C municipality.
(4) The legislation referred to in subsection (3) must take into account the need to
provide municipal services in an equitable and sustainable manner. Chapter 7: Local Government
76 (5) Provincial legislation must determine the different types of municipality to be
established in the province.
(6) Each provincial government must establish municipalities in its province in a
manner consistent with the legislation enacted in terms of subsections (2) and (3)
and, by legislative or other measures, must—
(a) provide for the monitoring and support of local government in the province;
and
(b) promote the development of local government capacity to enable
municipalities to perform their functions and manage their own affairs.
(6A) ......
[Sub-s. (6A) inserted by s. 1 of the Constitution Third Amendment Act of 1998 and deleted by s. 2 of
the Constitution Twelfth Amendment Act of 2005.]
(7) The national government, subject to section 44, and the provincial governments
have the legislative and executive authority to see to the effective performance by
municipalities of their functions in respect of matters listed in Schedules 4 and 5, by
regulating the exercise by municipalities of their executive authority referred to in
section 156(1).
Powers and functions of municipalities
What this means
- The index files this text under article 155 of the Constitution of South Africa.
- The index files it under the chapter heading “CHAPTER 6 — PROVINCES”.
- The passage runs to about 391 words.
The row’s stored title is a body fragment, not a heading (“(1) There are the following categories of municipality:”), so it is not used as the provision’s title here.
The index gives this passage an article number but stores a body fragment where a heading would be, so the number could not be cross-checked against the text. Check it against the official Constitution before relying on it in a citation.
No rights vocabulary from our fixed word list appears in this passage, so no plain-language reading is offered for it.
This is a mechanical reading aid generated from the text above by matching words in it. It is not legal advice, not a lawyer’s interpretation, and not a substitute for the provision itself.
How to cite this
Constitution of South Africa, article 155, Portable Lawyer, https://www.portablelawyer.app/provision/4c18734c-e3b3-4475-ad44-d72425e17f9d (accessed 25 October 2026).
Canonical URL: https://www.portablelawyer.app/provision/4c18734c-e3b3-4475-ad44-d72425e17f9d
Accessed 25 October 2026.
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