Johannesburg – A deadlock in coalition talks between small parties trying to keep the ANC out of running metros has accidentally thrown the lifeline to the governing party, which has reopened negotiations with other parties.
On Thursday, the ANC announced that it had concluded coalition talks with parties and would announce its mayoral candidates after the meeting of its national executive committee today.
It appears that a stalemate among opposition parties negotiating coalition governments in Tshwane and Johannes burg has opened the window of opportunity for the governing party to strike new deals.
ANC spokesperson Dakota Lekgoete said the party was still open to talking to anybody. “We tried everybody else in the first round.
[membership level=”1″]
Some spoke to us, some refused to talk to us and we accepted. Those who refused to speak to us have the burden of coming to us. We await any of them,” he said.
“It [the deadlock in talks of opposition parties] creates a window for us as the ANC to engage further with everybody, but it also demonstrates that those people are not like-minded. We knew it before that they are going to implode,” he added.
The ANC, which has struck deals with the IFP and Gayton McKenzie’s Patriotic Alliance, still needed to speak to other parties to form a government in Johannesburg.
The governing party had resigned itself to go to the opposition benches in Johannesburg, the country’s economic hub, and Tshwane, South Africa’s capital city – both of which the party lost to an opposition coalition in 2016.
But the DA yesterday threw the spanner in the works of talks among opposition parties by saying it would not support a minority government that depended on the EFF to take major decisions.
On Friday, the leaders of ActionSA, DA, UDM, COPE, and Freedom Front Plus met in Johannesburg to discuss a coalition deal to run Joburg and Tshwane.
Though there was consensus on a DA mayoral candidate for Tshwane, there was a deadlock over ActionSA’s Herman Mashaba running Johannesburg.
The majority of the small parties wanted Mashaba to govern Johannesburg, but the DA has rejected the proposal, saying it depended on EFF support. DA leader John Steenhuisen said it would field its mayoral candidate Mpho Phalatse tomorrow when the City of Johannesburg holds its first council meeting to elect a mayor and speaker.
“The IFP and the Patriotic Alliance, which have a significant number of seats in Johannes burg but not in Tshwane, have already announced that they will vote with the ANC. Without the 15 seats of these two parties, it is impossible for the other opposition parties to form a coalition without the support of the EFF,” he said.
It has emerged that the DA did not trust Mashaba and believed that he was again going to work closely with the EFF. Mashaba left the DA amid unhappiness with his proximity to the EFF.
In Tshwane, which holds its council meeting on Tuesday, the opposition parties could form a majority coalition government without the EFF. However, they would still need Mashaba’s party to form a government.
The parties had agreed to meet before the Joburg council meeting tomorrow to discuss the stalemate on Mashaba’s candidature. But by late yesterday, it was unclear whether the meeting would go ahead following the DA’s rejection of Mashaba.
In a joint statement yesterday, ActionSA, ACDP, Freedom Front Plus, and UDM said they were disappointed in the DA, warning it put successful coalitions at risk.
“As a group, we call on the DA to honour its commitment of keeping the ANC out of these municipalities by engaging with its potential coalition partners in good faith,” they said.
In Ekurhuleni, the ANC looked set to form a minority government with other small parties including the African Independent Congress. In Nelson Mandela Bay, opposition parties led by the DA were still ironing out final details before the council meeting tomorrow, at which they are planning to gang up against the ANC.
It has been reported that the DA has received the support of the Northern Alliance, Defenders of the People, Freedom Front Plus, African Christian Democratic Party, Abantu Integrity Movement, and the United Democratic Movement.
Northern Alliance leader Gary van Niekerk said the smaller parties have decided to form a block for the purposes of negotiating coalition agreements.
To read more political news and views from this week’s paper, click here.
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here.
Sunday World
[/membership] [pmpro_signup submit_button=”Register” level=”1″ login=”1″ redirect=”referrer” short=”false” title=”Thank you for choosing Sunday World, to read this article for free, please register below at no cost.” short=”true” custom_fields=”true”]
