BLOEMFONTEIN, Saturday 26 September 2026 — The Patriotic Alliance has promised residents a three-month break from paying municipal rates and the cancellation of existing municipal debt in councils it governs after the 4 November local government elections, placing household costs at the centre of its municipal campaign.
PA leader Gayton McKenzie announced the measures during the party’s manifesto launch at the Dr Petrus Molemela Stadium in Bloemfontein on Saturday.
He said households struggling with the cost of municipal services should be given an immediate financial reprieve before returning to regular payment arrangements.
The manifesto launch is significant because the PA is contesting for influence in several potentially fragmented councils, including Johannesburg, Cape Town, Nelson Mandela Bay, Ekurhuleni and Mangaung.
Its proposals also raise an important governing question: how municipalities would finance a broad debt write-off and temporary rates holiday while maintaining already strained service-delivery budgets.
McKenzie promises three-month payment holiday
McKenzie said PA-led councils would suspend municipal rates payments for three months.
He argued that pensioners and other financially distressed households are frequently forced to choose between paying municipal accounts and buying basic necessities.
“Our people need a breather,” McKenzie told supporters.
The precise scope of the proposed holiday will matter.
The Citizen reported McKenzie as referring specifically to municipal rates, rather than announcing a suspension of every municipal charge for water, electricity, sanitation and refuse services.
Any implementation would also have to comply with municipal budgeting, revenue-management and financial-governance legislation.
PA also promises to wipe existing municipal debt
McKenzie went further by promising to cancel existing municipal debt.
“If you owe R20 000, you owe R80 000; you will owe R0,” he said, telling supporters that residents would start again with a clean slate.
Debt relief is not entirely new to the PA’s political platform.
The party made similar promises during previous municipal campaigns, and Johannesburg mayoral candidate Kenny Kunene has already made debt relief a significant component of his 2026 campaign.
Kunene’s Johannesburg proposal has focused particularly on households occupying properties valued below R1 million.
Saturday’s national manifesto address places municipal debt relief more broadly at the centre of the PA’s local-government offer.
Financial consequences would depend on design
Municipal debt is one of the most difficult components of South Africa’s local-government financial crisis.
Councils depend on property rates and service charges to finance operations, maintain infrastructure and pay suppliers including Eskom and water boards.
At the same time, many municipalities carry large amounts of consumer debt that may be difficult or impossible to collect.
Writing off irrecoverable debt can therefore be legitimate financial administration.
A blanket cancellation of recoverable household debt would be a different proposition because it could remove revenue that municipalities expected to collect.
The financial effect of the PA proposal will depend on which categories of debt qualify, whether businesses are included, how indigent households are treated and whether residents who have kept their accounts current receive equivalent relief.
Those details were not set out in the reporting available from Saturday’s launch.
PA wants neighbourhood watches funded by municipalities
Community safety forms another component of the party’s manifesto.
McKenzie said municipalities should use their budgets to pay neighbourhood-watch groups operating in communities where residents believe conventional policing is inadequate.
He cited Botshabelo in the Free State as an example of an area where residents depend on community structures when responding to crime.
Municipalities already operate metropolitan or municipal police services in some jurisdictions and can fund community-safety programmes.
The South African Police Service nevertheless remains responsible for national policing and criminal investigations.
Any municipal scheme paying neighbourhood-watch members would therefore require clear rules governing training, oversight, legal authority and the relationship between community structures and formal law-enforcement agencies.
Immigration again prominent in PA municipal campaign
McKenzie also returned to one of the PA’s longstanding political themes: undocumented immigration.
He said municipalities controlled by the party would use municipal by-laws against businesses operated unlawfully by undocumented migrants.
The distinction between municipal and national powers is important.
Immigration status, deportation and border enforcement are national functions administered principally through the Department of Home Affairs and the Border Management Authority.
Municipalities can, however, enforce generally applicable business licensing, zoning, health, building and trading by-laws.
Those rules must apply lawfully and cannot replace national immigration legislation.
The PA’s proposal therefore depends on using municipal regulatory powers around businesses rather than giving councils independent authority to determine immigration status.
McKenzie rejects ‘coloured party’ label
McKenzie also used the manifesto launch to challenge descriptions of the PA as a party based principally among coloured voters.
He said the party had registered about 5,000 council candidates, of whom he claimed roughly 3,000 were black African.
Those figures are McKenzie’s characterisation of the party’s candidate slate.
The PA has historically performed strongly in predominantly coloured communities, particularly in parts of the Western Cape, Northern Cape and Gauteng.
Its growth strategy for 2026 involves expanding beyond those areas.
Holding the national manifesto launch in Bloemfontein forms part of that broader effort.
PA has become increasingly important in coalition politics
The party’s significance in the election cannot be measured solely by whether it wins outright control of municipalities.
The PA already has experience participating in coalition governments and has held executive positions in several councils.
McKenzie himself previously served as mayor of Central Karoo District Municipality.
The party has also participated in governing arrangements in Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela Bay, Ekurhuleni and other municipalities.
That experience has made it a potentially important coalition partner where larger parties fall short of a majority.
Its support can become particularly valuable when council arithmetic is closely divided.
Johannesburg is major test for PA growth
Johannesburg is one of the clearest examples.
Kunene is the PA’s mayoral candidate in the country’s largest city and has been campaigning on municipal debt relief, infrastructure repairs, law enforcement and tighter regulation of businesses.
The Johannesburg election is expected to produce another fragmented council.
The ANC, DA, ActionSA, EFF, PA and several smaller parties are competing for representation, while no major public polling currently points confidently to a single-party majority.
That means even a relatively modest increase in PA representation could strengthen its bargaining position when the council elects a mayor.
The PA’s coalition choices could consequently matter almost as much as its headline vote share.
Cape Town and Nelson Mandela Bay also in PA sights
The party is simultaneously seeking to expand in metros where it has historically competed for voters with both the DA and ANC.
In Cape Town, the PA has named Liam Jacobs as its mayoral candidate.
The party is also campaigning aggressively in Nelson Mandela Bay and Buffalo City.
McKenzie visited Buffalo City earlier this week, where he made broader national-policy commitments including support for reinstating the death penalty, religious instruction in schools and compulsory military service. Those proposals fall largely outside municipal powers and were made before Saturday’s manifesto launch.
The municipal commitments announced in Bloemfontein are more immediately relevant to what a council controlled or influenced by the PA could attempt to implement.
Rates promise gives voters measurable commitment
The three-month rates holiday is particularly notable because it is a quantifiable election promise.
Unlike broad commitments to improve services or fight corruption, voters can determine relatively easily after an election whether a PA-led municipality implements the measure.
The debt-write-off promise will be more complicated to assess because its impact depends on the eligibility rules eventually adopted.
Municipalities would also have to reconcile relief for indebted households with obligations to maintain sustainable revenue collection.
That creates a tension at the heart of the proposal.
Residents experiencing financial pressure may benefit directly from debt relief, while councils require payment from customers to fund reliable water, electricity, roads, sanitation and refuse services.
Coalition negotiations could determine whether promises are implemented
The PA may not have to win a municipality outright for parts of its manifesto to become government policy.
In a hung council, it could make debt relief, community safety or other manifesto commitments conditions of a coalition agreement.
That makes Saturday’s programme relevant to post-election negotiations.
Parties forming governments after 4 November will have to decide which campaign promises can be incorporated into shared programmes and municipal budgets.
The PA’s bargaining strength will depend entirely on the seats voters give it.
For now, McKenzie has placed a clear financial offer before voters: three months without municipal rates and cancellation of accumulated municipal debt in councils where the PA obtains sufficient power to implement its programme.
Whether municipalities can afford that promise — and precisely who would qualify — will become the next test of the policy as the campaign moves towards election day.
