WALLIS AJ Structures Act for a majority of councillors to be present. On the assumption that this means a majority in number of all possible councillors, ignoring any vacancies, she expressed concern that in view of the relatively close balance between major parties in the council88 setting aside the election of these councillors would lead to a situation where either of the major parties could, by simply not attending council meetings, bring the work of the council to a standstill. She indicated that this had occurred in the period prior to the December 2013 by-elections. The Speaker shared this view. Both said they were concerned that the council would be rendered dysfunctional as a result of such tactics by one of the major parties. [121] This concern is misplaced. Section 1 of the Structures Act defines “councillor” as being a “member of a municipal council”. The applicants correctly point out that the determination of a quorum is thus dependent on the number of elected councillors not the total number of wards and proportional representation seats on the council. This is reflected in the council’s standing rules of order. The effect of declaring the seven seats involved in these by-elections vacant would be to reduce the number of elected councillors to 45. A majority would then be 23 councillors, and there are 23 councillors who are not members of the majority party. Taken together with the Speaker, who is obliged under section 37 of the Structures Act to convene quarterly meetings of the council and preside over such meetings, there is a majority of elected councillors available to ensure that the council remains quorate even if the majority party chose to boycott meetings. Conversely, if the principal minority party were to boycott meetings there would be sufficient councillors from other parties to constitute a quorum. [122] But if either major party in the council were to boycott its proceedings in order to prevent it from operating that would be gravely irresponsible. We should not assume that the governing party and the official opposition at national and most other 88 The ANC currently has 29 members of whom seven would be unseated leaving it with 22; the DA has 19; the Freedom Front has 1; COPE has 1 and there are 2 independents. 61