There are coalition governments in six of SA’s eight metros. This has become the norm as the dominance of the ANC has dissipated over the last two local elections.
On paper, in those cases where there is no outright majority, coalitions seem a good and necessary solution to allow local councils to be governed — a number of parties representing a range of interests, working together for the common good of a locality.
In reality, apart from councils in the Western Cape, coalitions have not worked well in SA, often falling apart acrimoniously. The failure of a coalition, precipitating a change in leadership with the consequent political instability, stalls decision-making and has a negative effect on service delivery.
The real risk to coalitions is the outsize power wielded by individual councillors representing small parties (as well as these smaller parties themselves). These individuals have repeatedly proven too easy to convince to jump ship, either with promises of senior positions in new coalitions or through outright bribes. Among such individuals and parties there is little thought for the effect their actions have on a municipality and its ability to deliver services.
The political shenanigans in Johannesburg are a case in point. A few weeks ago COPE’s Colleen Makhubele was elected as the new speaker in the council after a shock vote of no confidence ousted the sitting speaker, the DA’s Vasco de Gama. This came after Makhubele and four other councillors voted against their own coalition.
COPE, the party Makhubele represented (which may or may not have suspended her for voting against the party’s wishes, depending on which faction you speak to) garnered just 0.22% of the votes in Johannesburg in 2021’s municipal elections. It is telling that Makhubele has now been voted in as speaker, a considerable promotion, with the full support of the new ANC-led coalition.
After smaller parties deserted coalition, precipitating its collapse in favour of a new ANC-led coalition, it has transpired that five of the 10 new ANC-led mayoral committee members hail from small coalition partners. Just how representative of voters are these partners? The Patriotic Alliance (two seats) garnered 2.9% of the Johannesburg vote 2021, the African Independent Congress managed 0.5%, Al Jama-ah 0.9%, and the African Transformation Movement 0.36%.
Together they represent 4.8% of Joburg’s voters yet now occupy half of the posts on the mayoral committee, the supreme decision-making body of the Johannesburg City Council. On being elected speaker Makhubele thanked “these great leaders standing next to me ... the minority parties that joined hands and said unless we win, it is not a win for the City of Johannesburg”. Irony drips off this statement.
It is difficult to see how Makhubele can claim her occupation of the speaker’s position, albeit one of the most powerful in the council, is a win for Johannesburg or its people when she represents a party that could get only a quarter of 1% of the votes in Johannesburg in the last election (and from which she may be suspended for voting against its mandate), along with other small coalition partners who together represent 4.8% of the vote.
Yet for good measure Makhubele added quizzically that “... it’s not only the allure of power that’s destroying coalitions”. Actually, there is no doubt that the allure of power (and possibly money) among unrepresentative individuals and/or small parties is the biggest risk to coalitions, and indeed to the stability of governance in coalition-run local councils in SA.
The fickleness of such individuals and small parties is such that it’s difficult to see how this risk can be mitigated. But larger, more representative parties in coalition-run councils have also not covered themselves in glory. While competition to govern locally is all good and well, the ANC has made it clear it will stop at nothing to regain power in coalition councils where it is in opposition, especially at metro level.
The ANC is constantly plotting to bring down governing coalitions it is not part of, through whatever means necessary — most notably by exploiting the questionable morality of individual councillors and small parties, be it by promising them senior roles in future ANC-led coalitions (as in Johannesburg) or through bribery. We have just seen the arrests of three former councillors and an ANC regional representative for giving or receiving bribes to bring down the DA-led coalition during the last political term in Nelson Mandela Bay.
The ANC’s strategy seems to be: if we can’t govern, nobody can. And when all else fails the party seems happy to organise walkouts, repeatedly propose votes of no confidence, introduce endless points of order, shout from the floor to drown out the speaker, and generally make it impossible for a council meeting to proceed or pass resolutions.
While it is not only the ANC that engages in such obstructionist behaviour — it may well be the EFF’s raison d’être at local level — the ANC’s size and power enable it to bring the democratic process to a grinding halt when it engages in such behaviour at a local council.
The national department of co-operative governance recently released a draft “Code of Conduct for Councillors Regulations”, to bolster existing regulations issued in 2001. New clauses include the prohibition of “walkouts” during council meetings and penalising the unruly behaviour of councillors. The need for these regulations is a recognition of the negative effect obstructionist politics has on the ability to govern at local level.
That said, the DA, now filled with righteous indignation at the injustice of its loss in Johannesburg, seems to assume it is somehow entitled to govern there (and in various other local councils) despite managing to get only 26% of the votes in the metro in the last local election, eight percentage points less than the ANC’s 34%.
Complaints from smaller partners in DA-led coalitions of DA arrogance should not be dismissed out of hand. Partnerships by their nature are about negotiation and compromise, obviously within reasonable limits.
Where does this leave local government and the long-suffering residents of places such as Johannesburg, caught in the middle of battles between cynical politicians who care naught for governance in the councils they are destroying, or the services they are not delivering?
SA Local Government Association president Bheki Stofile has said parties forming coalitions should be forced to sign coalition agreements, and that these should be made public. However, unless these agreements are binding legal contracts it seems naive to think the risk of public embarrassment might change the behaviour of more pliable coalition partners or individual councillors. As is shown in Johannesburg, they know no shame.
• Allan is MD of Municipal IQ, a data and intelligence organisation for local government. He was adviser to a previous local government minister.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.