Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Thembi Nkadimeng said on Wednesday that political maturity is vital in running municipalities in a way that will meet service delivery needs, as she called for the regulation of motions of no confidence.

She addressed the media following her presentation to the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Parliament Portfolio Committee, where she outlined municipal support and interventions.

She said coalition partnerships needed to be better scrutinised as coalition governments were becoming a challenge.

Nkadimeng believes motions of no confidence should be allowed in the event of fraud and corruption or lack of accountability.

"We can't [have motions] on the basis of slight provocation like I didn't greet you this morning therefore you are angry with party B and you are walking away and you are forming another coalition with somebody else. It does not last," she stressed.

She dismissed the notion that her department was unnecessarily micromanaging municipalities, making an example of Nelson Mandela Bay which she said had been changing mayors frequently between 2016 and 2021.

Nelson Mandela Bay didn't build a single RDP house, "not that they never had the money. They returned no less than R500-million".

She added that there was a need to develop roads, lights and servitudes which she said was a long process which could take around 24 months with municipalities regularly changing mayors.

She questioned what happens to citizens if there was no stability in municipalities.

She said the law must protect citizens "who are supposed to receive a house in Nelson Mandela Bay, who are supposed to have a house with funds provided, but they were not utilised and [nobody is] held accountable for that".  

She said normally accountability was looked at when there was money missing but it should also be looked at in the case where citizens were not provided the services that they required.