After its worst electoral defeat yet, in which it lost crucial metros to the opposition in 2016, the ANC says it will have no choice but to enter into coalitions with other parties should it not win with an outright majority in the upcoming local government elections.
“[Coalitions] are not desirable but at the end of the day it is what the elections produce…. If the outcome gives us a coalition, that equally will be reflected as the will of the people,” says the party’s head of elections, Fikile Mbalula.
The ANC aims to regain the crucial metros of Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay that it lost to DA-led coalitions in 2016.
It also suffered a huge electoral setback in Ekurhuleni as, for the first time, it failed to secure a clear majority vote to form a government on its own, requiring it to form coalitions with smaller opposition parties to co-govern.
Of the three metros in Gauteng, Ekurhuleni has remained the most stable over the past five years.
Mbalula says that coalitions formed with other smaller political parties in the Western Cape led to the ANC’s “political demise” in the province.
After the 2016 poll, the ANC won the Laingsburg municipality in the Western Cape out of 30 in the province. Five years later, ahead of the 2021 polls, the party is in control, either on its own or through coalitions, in eight municipalities in the Western Cape after various by-elections.
“We are coming from coalitions ourselves in the Cape Metro. We did not do well out of that coalition. In fact that coalition [led to our] political demise so to say…. So coalitions are not ideal and desirable but in the political dispensation it is the will of the people. But we are asking for a majority for us to rule.”
The party is on a reform trail as it lures voters ahead of the November 1 polls. Its reputation had been tarnished after the “wasted years” under former president Jacob Zuma and more recently the various Covid-19-related scandals linked to prominent party members.
The years of mismanagement of resources and corruption at many of the ANC-led municipalities has created a trail of destruction, leaving the national and provincial governments to pick up the pieces where the municipalities have failed.
Short of issuing an apology to voters who reside in the ANC-led municipalities that have deteriorated due to mismanagement, Mbalula said the party has acknowledged its failures and is now turning over a “new page”.
“It’s not a question of going back and apologising. We ourselves have acknowledged that it is not a smooth ride…. We are correcting the wrongs and that is why we are saying we are opening a new page.”
The party has overhauled the selection of its mayors, councillors and municipal senior management given that the method of selecting the candidates has not produced the required results.
Previously, individuals who appeared at the top of the nomination lists would automatically be selected to represent the party at the municipal councils.
The ANC has added an extra layer to the selection process, requiring mayoral candidates and senior managers to undergo an interview process, which Mbalula said has already been finalised.
“The process to interview mayoral candidates began last week. [We are] no longer appointing people into positions without interrogating [them],” he said.
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