As vote counting was being finalised, SA’s two leading political parties walked back previous indications that they would work together to govern metros, potentially leaving smaller parties such as ActionSA and the EFF as kingmakers.
ANC deputy-general Jessie Duarte ruled out a coalition with the DA, saying co-operating with the sometimes bitter political rival would be “a bridge too far” for the governing party, which suffered bruising setbacks that are set to leave it with less than 50% in all but one of the country’s eight metros.
With some of its senior leaders having indicated that they would put the national interest ahead of their distaste for the ANC, DA sources on Wednesday told Business Day they might now only be willing to work with the ANC if it dropped below 50% in national and provincial polls in 2024.
By 5pm on Wednesday and with 82% of the votes counted, the ANC had managed 45.91% voter support nationally, its worst performance since coming to power in 1994. The DA was set to come second at 21.67%, down from 26.9%
in 2016.
A populist wave in favour of Julius Malema’s EFF never materialised either, though the party’s 10.38% share of the vote has left it in a position where it can enable the ANC — and exert a price for doing so — to govern.
Duarte said the ANC would find it “very difficult” to team up with any party that has a “racist agenda” and does not believe in local economic development or BEE.
She did not say who she was referring to, even as she, and ANC treasurer-general Paul Mashatile, still left open the possibility of compromise.
There were similarly mixed messages from the DA on who it would be willing to work with.
“Coalitions are about compromises,” Duarte said during a media briefing at the Electoral Commission of SA’s results centre in Tshwane on Wednesday.
“We would be principled without compromising legacy principles of the ANC. That’s the kind of discussions we would be happy to have with any politi-
cal party.”
DA insiders told Business Day that a viable coalition with the ANC is only possible after the 2024 national and provincial elections if the ANC drops below 50% in that poll, something that would mean there was less likelihood of being “swallowed” by the ANC.
“Look what happened in Zimbabwe when the opposition MDC went with Zanu-PF,” a senior party leader said. “It destroyed the MDC.”
DA leader John Steenhuisen said it would be impossible to talk to the ANC in Johannesburg and Tshwane particularly because “they are the reason those municipalities were left in absolute abject disgrace”, yet he also indicated that the only party he had ruled out was the EFF.
He placed one big stumbling block on co-operating with ActionSA, which was that “Mashaba cannot be mayor.”
As high-level coalition talks began on Wednesday night, Mashatile said “anything may still be possible”. Parties will have two weeks from the time the IEC declares the results to form a council where there is a hung municipality.
No political party looks set to achieve an outright majority in most of the metros, including Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni, Mangaung, Nelson Mandela Bay and eThekwini. The three Gauteng metros are important as they are situated in the country’s economic hub and contribute to the national GDP and the Gauteng economy.
Steenhuisen said the DA was happy to talk to any potential partners. “I’m willing to talk, if we can do things that are in the best interest of Joburg, and put together a stable coalition, I will talk to anybody who can, apart from the EFF, achieve that,”
Mashaba said he was willing to go into coalitions with the DA and EFF. The former mayor of Johannesburg, who resigned from the position and from the DA in 2019, was projected to win over 13% support in Joburg. In Tshwane and Ekurhuleni, ActionSA is projected to achieve voter support of above 7%, according to the CSIR. He previously ruled out joining ANC-led administrations.
“Anyone who wants to talk to us must understand that we want to run a pro-poor government, [must] commit to serve all communities, and that social justice is a non-negotiable,” said Mashaba, who served only three years of his five-year term as DA mayor from 2016.
EFF secretary-general Marshal Dlamini said the red berets were open to talk to any political party. “We are going to have a
mayor, we are not playing games this time around, we are in. We have taken that decision as the leadership of the EFF. If Tshwane is available for us, we are going to take it.”
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