are 44 district municipalities divided into 205 local municipalities. Elections Municipalities are governed by municipal councils which are elected every five(5) years. The most recent nationwide election of municipal councils was held on 1 November 2021. The councils of metropolitan and local municipalities are elected by a system of mixed-member proportional representation. These municipalities are divided into wards, and each ward directly elects one councillor by first-past-the-post voting. An equal number of councillors are appointed from party lists so that the overall makeup of the council is proportional to the votes received by each party. In district municipalities, 60% of the councillors are appointed by the councils of their constituent local municipalities, while the remaining 40% are elected by party-list proportional representation. Legislation The basic structure of local government originates from Chapter 7 of the Constitution of South Africa. In addition to this a number of acts of Parliament regulate the organisation of local government. The principal statutes are: Local Government: Municipal Demarcation Act, 1998 (Act 27 of 1998) Local Government: Municipal Structures Act, 1998 (Act 117 of 1998) Local Government: Municipal Systems Act, 2000 (Act 32 of 2000) Local Government: Municipal Finance Management Act, 2003 (Act 56 of 2003) Local Government: Municipal Property Rates Act, 2004 (Act 6 of 2004) Name changes The South African Geographical Names Council is a statutory body that deals specifically with changing names of places in South Africa, including municipalities. Mismanagement, inefficiency and discontent In rural areas South African municipalities are generally in a poor and deteriorating financial state, a situation which affects business activity and risks, livelihoods and growth propects of the economy. Businesses and their insurers have expressed concern that business assets in rural municipalities are not insurable. Discontent with the service delivery of municipalities is evident from the rising number of protests recorded from 2004 to 2020. The number of major protests increased from only 10 in 2004, to 237 in 2018. By 2019–20 Gauteng province had the most service delivery protests (some 23%), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (c.21%), the Western Cape (c.20%), Eastern Cape (c.15%) and Mpumalanga (c.9%). Discontent often revolves around the demand for housing and free basic services, especially when community members are displaced or suffer the loss of income. Other causes are perceived councillor accountability, the quality or pace of basic service delivery (housing, water and electricity), misappropriation of COVID-19 relief benefits and land invasions. Protestors sometimes confuse