# Article 157 of the Constitution of South Africa

- Jurisdiction: South Africa (ZA)
- Article: 157
- Chapter (as indexed): CHAPTER 6 — PROVINCES
- Source document: The South Africa Constitution
- Canonical (HTML): https://www.portablelawyer.app/provision/54dee9b5-024a-45cf-9d35-2e2223693a22
- This document: https://www.portablelawyer.app/provision/54dee9b5-024a-45cf-9d35-2e2223693a22/md
- Constitution: https://www.portablelawyer.app/countries/8bc72f0c-9ab9-458b-8230-af753676f856

## Verbatim text

````
(b) if provided for by national legislation—
(i) members appointed by other Municipal Councils to represent those other
Councils; or
(ii) both members elected in accordance with paragraph (a) and members
appointed in accordance with subparagraph (i) of this paragraph.
[Sub-s. (1) substituted by s. 1 (a) of the Constitution Eighth Amendment Act of 2002 and by s. 3 of the
Constitution Fifteenth Amendment Act of 2008.]
(2) The election of members to a Municipal Council as anticipated in subsection (1)(a)
must be in accordance with national legislation, which must prescribe a system—
(a) of proportional representation based on that municipality’s segment of the
national common voters roll, and which provides for the election of members
from lists of party candidates drawn up in a party’s order of preference; or
(b) of proportional representation as described in paragraph (a) combined with
a system of ward representation based on that municipality’s segment of the
national common voters roll.
(3) An electoral system in terms of subsection (2) must result, in general, in
proportional representation.
[Sub-s. (3) substituted by s. 1(b) of the Constitution Eighth Amendment Act of 2002.]
(4) (a) If the electoral system includes ward representation, the delimitation of
wards must be done by an independent authority appointed in terms of,
and operating according to, procedures and criteria prescribed by national
legislation.
(b) ……
[Para. (b) deleted by s. 3 of the Constitution Twelfth Amendment Act of 2005.]
[Sub-s. (4) substituted by s. 2 of the Constitution Third Amendment Act of 1998.] Chapter 7: Local Government
78 (5) A person may vote in a municipality only if that person is registered on that
municipality’s segment of the national common voters roll.
(6) The national legislation referred to in subsection (1)(b) must establish a system
that allows for parties and interests reflected within the Municipal Council making
the appointment, to be fairly represented in the Municipal Council to which the
appointment is made.
Membership of Municipal Councils
````

## What this means (mechanical reading aid, not legal advice)

- The index files this text under article 157 of the Constitution of South Africa.
- The index files it under the chapter heading “CHAPTER 6 — PROVINCES”.
- The passage runs to about 326 words.
- **Caveat:** The row’s stored title is a body fragment, not a heading (“(1) A Municipal Council consists of— (a) members elected in accordance with subsections (2) and (3); or”), so it is not used as the provision’s title here.
- **Caveat:** 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.
- **Caveat:** 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 157, Portable Lawyer, https://www.portablelawyer.app/provision/54dee9b5-024a-45cf-9d35-2e2223693a22 (accessed 25 October 2026).

## Related

- [Constitution of South Africa](https://www.portablelawyer.app/countries/8bc72f0c-9ab9-458b-8230-af753676f856)
- [South Africa on Portable Lawyer](https://www.portablelawyer.app/countries/8bc72f0c-9ab9-458b-8230-af753676f856)
- [HTML version of this provision](https://www.portablelawyer.app/provision/54dee9b5-024a-45cf-9d35-2e2223693a22)
- [Machine-readable corpus digest](https://www.portablelawyer.app/llms-full.txt)

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Portable Lawyer · Article 157 of the Constitution of South Africa (chapter: “CHAPTER 6 — PROVINCES”). (b) if provided for by national legislation— (i) members appointed by other Municipal Councils to represent those other Councils; or (ii) both members elected in accordance with…