During the 2021 local government elections, the ANC lost electoral power to opposition political parties to govern Tshwane, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni. In these three metropolitan municipalities, no single party received majority votes to solely constitute a municipal government. These hung municipalities presented an opportunity for political parties to canvass one another in order to form co-governing coalitions. In this article, we argue that the political parties' policy agendas and governing principles are diametrically opposed to each other and, therefore, should they decide to go into coalition government, these differing party policy agendas and principles will hamper the delivery of service. Therefore, are political parties lobbying for coalitions solely to weaken the ANC as the dominant party or to improve service delivery? It is against this backdrop that this paper examines the efficacy of coalition governments as a