The government plans to strengthen the regulatory framework governing coalitions to guide political parties in structuring sustainable coalitions, deputy president Paul Mashatile told the National Council of Provinces on Thursday.
Political coalitions in local government have proved unstable, being driven more by ambition for public office and its perks rather than being founded on common principles and ideologies. This has meant that they are easily upset by counter-offers from opposing parties.
This instability, which has had a negative effect on service delivery, became prevalent after the 2021 local government elections in which the ANC lost its majority in many municipalities, resulting in hung municipal councils. There has been speculation that the ANC might be forced into a national government coalition after the 2024 elections as it is expected to garner less than 50% of the vote.
During a question-and-answer session with MPs, Mashatile said the government intends to review the negative effect of dysfunctional coalition arrangements on service delivery. He said the government was concerned over the “endless disruptions” of coalition governments which derailed efforts to stimulate economic growth. A dialogue was needed on how coalitions should function.
“We must fix the way coalitions are set up because we are in an era when coalition governments particularly at local government have become the order of the day. We need to get the model right.”
Mashatile said the government would strengthen the framework for coalitions developed by the SA Local Government Association (Salga) in 2021 to guide political parties in the structuring of coalitions. The emphasis had to be on good service delivery, he said.
The Salga framework guides political parties on how to establish coalitions and the mechanisms needed to sustain them. It covers the full process of negotiation, formation, agreement, distribution of posts, what to do with kingmakers, how to govern, and how to deal with conflict, among other things. The framework stresses that coalition partners should not try to introduce the national policies of their political parties into the agreement, but take account of local needs.
Salga chief of operations Lance Joel said in an interview that many of the things coalition partners agreed to were illegal. Coalition agreements should not deal with the appointment of staff and tenders, but set out a common policy programme.
Salga proposed that coalition partners endorse a binding agreement to prevent the comings and goings that have been so common. The agreement should also be made public to prevent it from being violated and prescribe decision-making procedures and dispute resolution mechanisms to assist with coalition bargaining and conflict resolution. Joel said the coalition governments that had fallen apart had done “the total opposite” of what the Salga framework said they should do.
Freedom Front Plus MP Stephanus du Toit expressed concern that a stringent, government-designed regulatory framework would take away the democratic freedom of coalition partners who have to determine for themselves on what grounds and values they are willing to participate in a coalition.
The DA is also concerned about the instability of coalitions and has proposed two private member bills to deal with it.
One bill proposes limiting the frequency and conditions under which motions of no confidence can be moved against top officials in national, provincial and local government. Motions of no confidence have frequently been used to remove mayors and speakers. The second bill proposes electoral thresholds in local government be set to stop over-fragmentation of political parties, which gives rise to coalition governments made up of several parties.
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