Miscellaneous | The Democratic Alliance Case

The issue in this case was whether the Mayoral Council in local government should be treated as a council committee and have a balanced membership representing the diversity of council members. The majority judgment by Deputy Chief Justice Langa said no. In a concurring judgment, Justice Sachs said that even if the Mayoral Council was headed by a strong executive mayor, and made up of his supporters and allies, it would have to function in a balanced way, giving voice to all the currents represented in the council. He observed that the dialogical nature of deliberative democracy had its roots both in international democratic practice and indigenous African tradition. It had been through dialogue and sensible accommodation on an inclusive and principled basis that the Constitution itself had emerged. It would accordingly be perverse to construe its terms in a way that belied or minimised the importance of the very inclusive processes that had led to its adoption and sustained its legitimacy.