Cabinet has approved a draft Constitution change that would give national government wide powers to intervene at local level, prompting opposition protest that the African National Congress (ANC) is seeking a stranglehold on all local authorities.

Government spokesperson Themba Maseko told a media briefing on Thursday that the seventeenth Constitutional Amendment Bill would now be gazetted for public comment before being submitted to Parliament.

He said the main aim of the amendment was to make sure national policy was properly implemented to boost service delivery.

"This Bill vests national government with new powers of intervention at local government level to facilitate service delivery and to achieve regional efficiencies and economies of scale at local government level.

"The Bill will also facilitate the restructuring of the electricity distribution industry and possible regionalisation of other municipal functions when necessary," he said.

Maseko said certain municipalities had defied government policy to plough energy revenue back into electricity infrastructure and these should be brought into line.

He declined, however, to name the offending local governments.

"I do not want headlines saying government is attacking any particular city because that draws me into a political debate with an election coming."

Asked why the proposed amendment did not limit itself to letting central government intervene on electricity, Maseko said the State might later need greater powers in other areas and did not want to change the Constitution constantly.

"We don't want to amend the Constitution on an almost annual basis. If we did, it would stop providing certainty. So we thought it was better to give government the powers and trust... it will not use the powers willy-nilly."

The Bill has become a major election issue, with the Democratic Alliance (DA) lambasting it as "clear proof that the ANC wants to change the Constitution to entrench its power".

DA leader and Cape Town mayor Helen Zille called on voters to deny the ruling party a two-thirds majority, which would mean it could no longer change the Constitution single-handedly.

"That is why it is so important to keep the ANC below the two-thirds majority it needs to pass the Bill to change the Constitution. If voters give the ANC a two-thirds majority, the ANC will destroy the capacity of other parties to deliver where they govern."

Zille, who is running for the post of premier of the Western Cape, has repeatedly said the DA wants to claim control of as many local governments as possible over the next five years.

It is part of a strategy to prove to voters that it is better at delivery than the ANC and increase its national vote share in 2014.

Since the DA revealed at the weekend that the Bill was in the pipeline, the ANC has repeatedly said it had no intention of diminishing the Constitutional powers of local government.

"In fact, the ANC is determined that local government should be better empowered and have greater capacity so that it can respond to the needs of the people," party spokesperson Jessie Duarte said.

Zille accused the ANC of lying to the electorate "baldly and blatantly".

Earlier this week, the South African Local Government Association said the proposed amendment was a bid by government to speed up plans to create six regional electricity distributors and remove delivery deadlocks.

It added that while it was still debating its position with members, it was not in favour of an amendment that would lead to "an outright removal of the municipalities' executive authority over electricity reticulation" as this would have severe financial implications for local governments.