Johannesburg- Nelson Mandela Bay voters are in for a rough ride as the city’s politics enters tough coalition terrain.
Residents of this metro are familiar with this terrain as the last five years were marked by instability amid endless fights between political parties that were supposed to work together.
Without an outright winner, every political party represented in the council is a kingmaker because whoever forms a coalition government between the ANC or DA will need a few of the smaller parties to reach 50% plus one.
The Nelson Mandela Bay metro has 120 seats and governing this metro requires a coalition whose political parties fill 61 seats.
The ANC and the DA have 48 seats each, while the EFF has eight. Newcomers to the council include the Northern Alliance with three seats,
Defenders of the People with two and Abantu Integrity Movement with one seat.
The Freedom Front Plus, Good Party and the PAC are for the first time represented in the Nelson Mandela Bay council. The FF-Plus has two seats, while the other two have a seat each. The ACDP and Patriotic Alliance (PA) have doubled their seats to two each, while the UDM and AIC have a seat each.
Several political parties have confirmed talks with representatives of both the ANC and the DA to form a coalition government.
ANC Nelson Mandela Bay regional task team co-ordinator Luyolo Nqakula confirmed engagements with smaller parties. “I’ll be meeting with everyone who is keen to meet with us except the DA and Freedom Front Plus. I will also not be meeting with the EFF because its regional leadership has no say on these matters,” he said.
DA Eastern Cape chairman Andrew Whitfield said coalition negotiations would be handled by the party’s federal executive, while EFF leader Julius Malema tabled the party’s rules of engagement, which include support for expropriation of land without compensation.
While it appears the ANC can work comfortably with most of the parties on the council, the DA could struggle.
Its best bets would be the FF-Plus, ACDP, AIC, UDM and the AIM, but these only make up 55 seats. The party would also require the NA, Defenders of the People (DOP), PA or Good to reach 61.
DOP leader Tukela Zumani, whose party won two seats, said there were coalition talks but would not divulge who it was talking to. “It is still very early to announce anything,” he said.
A source close to political developments in the metro said it will be difficult for the DOP to work with the DA because one of its founders, Victor Manyathi, was expelled by the DA after abstaining in the motion of no-confidence against former DA-led coalition elected council speaker Jonathan Lawack, paving the way for the removal of Athol Trollip as a mayor.
The source said: “It’s unlikely that the party can work with the DA with all that happened between the DA and Manyathi.”
But Zumani said the DA/Manyathi issue preceded the existence of the DOP and will not be a determining factor for the coalition.
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