Political parties across the board are reluctant to share details of coalition plans so soon after the 2021 local government elections. Talks between parties will ramp up this week as they haggle for power in 70 hung municipalities.
After the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) event concluding the elections on Thursday, political parties have 14 days to negotiate before councils are finalised.
Several parties have appointed coalition teams and held informal discussions with potential allies, including at results centres around the country even before results were confirmed last week. At least four parties — the ANC, DA, ActionSA and IFP — met to solidify their stances on new partnerships in local government. Formal talks set for this week will have a long-lasting effect on local government in SA.
On Sunday, the ANC’s highest decision-making body, met to deliberate over coalitions after its losses in the 2021 polls, while the DA’s federal council met at the party’s headquarters in Johannesburg.
DA leader John Steenhuisen said beforehand: “Today we’re going to be forming governments. We’re going to be finalising coalition offers to some of the other parties.”
He promised the DA would be undertaking pact talks based on principles of transparency and accountability, service delivery, economic development and clean administration.
EFF spokesperson Leigh-Ann Mathys said the party’s committee on coalitions was holding internal talks. More feedback on coalitions would follow, most likely on Monday. “Any party that is saying [at this stage] I am talking to this one and that one makes the process very messy,” Mathys said.
New kid on the block ActionSA, led by Herman Mashaba, held a senate meeting on Sunday night to give feedback on which parties had dropped hints on working together. Mashaba has ambitions of regaining Johannesburg’s mayoral chain. He last held the post from 2016 to 2019 under the banner of the DA.
GOOD’s secretary-general Brett Herron said the party was approached by others seeking coalitions but “decided in principle not to join any coalitions but rather to serve as a constructive opposition in each of the councils where we are elected”.
He would not name the parties.
Herron said coalitions of expedience were not sustainable and must be based on a clear delivery agreement. “If it’s merely for positions, or just to keep another party out, they are potentially very messy and unsustainable,” Herron said.
On Sunday afternoon, the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) met at St George’s hotel in Irene. NEC members gathered after off-the-record talks with a number of political parties on Saturday, said spokesperson Pule Mabe.
According to Mabe, the ANC believed “with our maturing democracy, there is a need to look beyond party confines to service our people”.
ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte and treasurer- general Paul Mashatile were leading the party’s negotiating team.
The IFP ruled out any treaty with the ANC where it will govern, citing dishonesty as a main reason. For the first time since 2004, the ANC lost outright control of eThekwini, in KwaZulu-Natal, the third-wealthiest metro in the country.
The IFP made big gains in KwaZulu-Natal, including outright wins in five of 11 district municipalities. President Velenkosini Hlabisa said the party’s coalition team was led by Narend Singh.
Hlabisa said of the ANC: “They have not been honest with us in the past. They have let down the people of SA, and the voters expressed themselves clearly against the ANC.” He reported “many parties” had approached the IFP and it would provide feedback after new alliances were finalised.
After the 2011 local government elections, there were 37 hung councils. The number dropped to 27 in 2016 and reached a record high of 70 in 2021. In light of the rapid spike in hung municipalities, which reflects tectonic shifts in SA politics, some parties are already planning for the national polls in 2024.
The DA and IFP are among those evaluating how to best leverage new partnerships with an eye to 2024 wins. The IFP plans to “take back” KwaZulu-Natal.
The DA’s Steenhuisen said: “We can now see what is possible in 2024 and everything we will be doing over the next three years heading into that is around building a strong core of a new majority to bring the ANC below 50%.”
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