The DA-led multiparty coalition running SA’s economic hub of Johannesburg could be reduced to a minority coalition and open the door wide for a potential takeover by opposition parties should the Patriotic Alliance (PA) make good on its threat to pull out of the coalition.
The DA characterised PA leader Gayton McKenzie’s recent election as Central Karoo district mayor as “political thuggery”. But the consequences of a PA withdrawal are likely to be felt more in the Johannesburg metro.
Of the 270 council seats in the Johannesburg city council, 140 are held by the coalition, of which the PA accounts for eight. If the PA pulls out in Johannesburg, the coalition will be reduced to 132 seats. To pass the budget and other crucial council items, including service delivery programmes, political parties need a majority of 136 votes.
The PA has four seats in the Ekurhuleni council, also run by a DA-led minority coalition.
The inclusion of the PA in the coalition in February stabilised the two municipalities by giving the coalition more seats in the councils. It was also viewed as enabling the municipalities to pass their integrated development plans, budgets and service delivery programmes. The two metros’ service delivery agenda would therefore be affected if the PA pulls out of the coalition.
Before the PA’s inclusion, the metros had been rocked by instability, which delayed the election of portfolio committee chairs as ANC, EFF and minority party councillors collapsed proceedings because they were unhappy with the voting procedure.
TimesLIVE reported that the DA’s interim Western Cape leader, Tertius Simmers, recently told News24 that the party was concerned about McKenzie’s unopposed election as executive mayor about two weeks ago.
“What we’ve been hearing, which one can’t confirm yet, is literally not democracy in action. It’s political thuggery in action. The sad thing is, monitoring since [McKenzie] has become district mayor, I don’t think the PA leader has a concept of what local government is,” Simmers said.
McKenzie took to Twitter on Saturday, tweeting: “We are only considered thugs when we work with the ANC in some municipalities, where we work with @Our_DA in Knysna, Matzikama, COJ [City of Johannesburg] & Ekurhuleni we are not considered thugs, we will show you ... watch this space.”
McKenzie could not be reached immediately for comment. PA deputy president Kenny Kunene told Business Day on Monday that his party does not “care about the DA-led coalition” in Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni.
The two metros, together with Tshwane, came to be ruled by DA-led coalitions after the municipal elections in 2021, when the ANC’s national electoral support fell below the 50% mark for the first time since 1994.
“I recommended to the president [McKenzie] and to our national executive committee [NEC], which meets later this week, that we should pull out of the coalition in the cities of Joburg and Ekurhuleni, precisely because we cannot take insults anymore, from people who come to us at night, beg us in the sitting rooms of our private houses, that we should go with them and join the coalition,” Kunene said.
“The NEC is going to sit and we will have a discussion on this issue. I feel strongly that we should pull out of this coalition in these two metros. We are not beggars in this coalition, they were negotiated with [DA federal council chair] Helen Zille and [DA leader John] Steenhuisen.”
The PA received national voter support of 0.97% during the 2021 local government elections, which translated to 75 municipal council seats across the country.
Kunene said the PA only joined the coalition to bring stability to the two metros.
“The implications of us pulling out of the two metros would mean that when it’s time to vote for the budget, the DA would need us to vote with them, they have the majority now, they are stable, but if we pull out, they won’t have that majority to pass budgets.”
When contacted for comment, DA federal council chair Helen Zille said: “Let’s all try to cool the temperature and calm the waters. Politics is a stormy place and we all need to work hard to default to equilibrium.” Asked if the coalition would collapse if the PA were to pull out of the coalition, Zille responded: “Not if we calm the waters.”
African Independent Congress (AIC) councillor and chair of minority opposition parties, Margaret Arnolds, said: “It’s obvious that the coalition will collapse if the PA doesn’t go with DA any longer in Joburg. If PA decides to pull out of the coalition, then the DA will lose and the tables will turn in favour of the opposition.”
Arnolds said parties need 136 seats to be in majority in council and pass budgets and other service delivery programmes.
“I believe the DA did not see all of this coming. You know in Afrikaans there is a saying that die poppe sal dans [trouble is coming],” Arnolds said.
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