Johannesburg- There is a strong push against giving the EFF full control of some municipalities as part of coalition deals as the ANC top brass met yesterday to discuss the
future of the country’s 66 hung municipalities.
The ANC and the EFF were yesterday locked in tough negotiations over the future of the hung councils after support for the governing party declined by 8% during Monday’s local government elections.
A team led by ANC treasurer-general Paul Mashatile was meeting the red berets, who were led by the party’s deputy leader Floyd Shivambu.
The EFF delegation also included the party’s former chairperson advocate Dali Mpofu and the organization’s former spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi
The ANC was also understood to be meeting the DA and the Patriotic Alliance this past weekend.
On Friday night, the EFF threw down the gauntlet to the ANC, setting it tougher demands than after the 2016 local government elections, including tight deadlines to nationalize the SA Reserve Bank (SARB) and amend the constitution to allow for land expropriation without compensation.
A demand by the EFF to be given full control of some municipalities in exchange for its support had already caused consternation within the governing party ahead of yesterday’s talks.
Leaders in the ANC told Sunday World that there was already a strong push against sharing municipalities with the EFF, which will have the little option without the ANC after the DA announced that it would not work with them.
Yesterday, the ANC national executive committee (NEC) met physically for the first time since the onset of Covid-19 to finalize the party’s guidelines on coalitions and decide on which parties the organisation would work with in hung councils.
There were differing views in the ANC over two major issues: the EFF’s demand to be given full control of municipalities and going to bed with the DA, which is considered an “enemy” in some quarters of the governing party.
An NEC member said there was no way the party was going to hand over municipalities where it commanded most votes to the EFF.
“We must respect voters. We can’t be a 40% party and hand over municipalities to a 10% party,” he said.
The leader said the party would find it hard to explain to communities why they should be governed by the EFF when they voted for the ANC.
There were fears that imposing a mayor and members of the mayoral committees from an opposition party would lead to riots like the one in Tshwane in 2016.
Residents of Tshwane took to the streets after the ANC leadership imposed the party’s senior leader Thoko Didiza to be the party’s mayoral candidate following an impasse between leaders of the region.
Another NEC member said the EFF’s demands on issues such as the nationalisation of the SARB, the creation of a state bank and the establishment of a state pharmaceutical company had nothing to do with local government.
“At local government … you want to give people water, collect rubbish. Local government is about service delivery.
“The EFF is not strong in all municipalities. We can enter into coalitions with other smaller parties,” he said.
A showdown is looming over whether the party should consider partnering with the DA in councils, in the event that talks with the EFF collapse.
Leaders aligned to the ANC faction calling itself Radical Economic Transformation Forces were opposed to a marriage between the DA and ANC.
They were ready to weaponise the partnership between the country’s two biggest parties as part of their campaign to unseat President Cyril Ramaphosa at the party’s elective conference, should it enter into coalitions with the official opposition.
“The DA is a far-right party. We don’t want our policies to be undermined by the DA. We rather be on opposition benches.” he said.
The ANC registered its lowest poll performance since 1994.
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