‘No promises without a plan’ in Joburg talks, Zungula lays down ATM’s conditions

Vuyo Zungula says financial management, service delivery and a clear five-year programme of action must be at the centre of any coalition agreement as the ATM positions itself for a potentially hung Johannesburg council.

The African Transformation Movement (ATM) will not commit to supporting a coalition government in Johannesburg without a written agreement setting out how the city will be governed and holding its political leaders accountable, its mayoral candidate, Vuyo Zungula, says.

With no party expected to secure an outright majority in the City of Johannesburg, Zungula said the ATM was open to discussions after the November 4 local government elections, but would not be swayed by political promises without a clear plan for addressing the city’s problems.

The party has yet to decide whether it would support a coalition led by the ANC or the DA, with Zungula saying its immediate focus was on the policies and commitments that would guide the next administration.

“The emphasis has always been there must be a coalition arrangement, an agreement, a coalition agreement, which then informs how we work,” he said.

Zungula, who has built a profile in parliament through his persistent questioning of President Cyril Ramaphosa over the Phala Phala scandal, said the ATM’s experience in coalition governments had taught it the importance of written agreements.

He cited the party’s previous participation in Joburg’s coalition administration, where an ATM representative served as a member of the mayoral committee for about 16 months before being recalled for what he described as political reasons.

The party has also held a mayoral committee position in Mogale City, where ATM councillor Danny Molefi Thupane was appointed to the human settlements and rural development portfolio in the DA-led administration in 2021. Thupane later became the municipality’s mayor in April 2023 after the removal of DA mayor Tyrone Gray.

Zungula said the absence of enforceable coalition agreements made it difficult to ensure accountability and continuity in government.

He said the ATM had raised similar concerns during discussions with the ANC about the formation of the national government of national unity in 2024.

“It’s not a case of hearing a politician or a party making a promise, because we’ve been in these spaces before. We know how, when parties want to force to get a mayor or to run a coalition, they’ll sell anything,” he said.

“But in the absence of a written agreement or a written programme which we could use to hold them accountable, it would be stupid for us to actually take the word of a politician.”

The ATM’s proposed conditions for Johannesburg include improving the city’s financial management, strengthening its institutional capacity, addressing the non-compliance of spaza shops and tackling hijacked buildings.

Zungula said the party wants financial management to be prioritised because the city needs to address the underlying problems contributing to its governance and service delivery challenges.

He said a coalition agreement would also have to contain a programme of action setting out what the incoming administration intended to achieve during its five-year term.

For residents, he said, the immediate priority was getting the basics right, including reliable water and electricity supply, functioning streetlights, maintained roads and improved safety.

“The mandate is basically to get Joburg to work, focusing on the basics,” Zungula said.

He said residents were prepared to wait for more complex problems to be resolved if the city could demonstrate that it was addressing essential services and delivering on its commitments.

The ATM’s position comes as smaller parties prepare to negotiate their influence in councils where the larger political parties fall short of a majority.

In the 2021 local government elections, the ATM secured about 0.62% of the total votes across all ballots nationally, according to the Electoral Commission’s results. Despite its relatively small electoral support, the party has participated in coalition arrangements that have given it opportunities to hold executive positions in municipalities.

We are just really agitating at a policy level, or at a political level. What must the city do differently so that the residents of Joburg do not suffer the way they have been suffering?

—  Vuyo Zungula, ATM's mayoral candidate for Johannesburg

Zungula’s Johannesburg candidacy represents a shift from his high-profile parliamentary role to a direct contest for executive power in one of the country’s most politically contested metros.

He has been a prominent voice in parliamentary efforts to hold Ramaphosa accountable over the Phala Phala farm scandal, which followed the theft of foreign currency from the president’s Limpopo property.

Zungula participated in the parliamentary process examining whether there were grounds to initiate impeachment proceedings against the president.

Asked why the ATM had chosen to field him in Johannesburg despite his parliamentary profile, Zungula said the decision followed the party’s candidate selection process, which involved consultations with community structures and other local formations.

He said the party’s Johannesburg regional executive had reported that those consulted wanted him to contest the metro.

Rather than focusing on which party it might support after the election, Zungula said the ATM was concentrating on what it believed a future administration needed to do differently.

“We are just really agitating at a policy level, or at a political level. What must the city do differently so that the residents of Joburg do not suffer the way they have been suffering?” he said.

The party’s final position on coalition negotiations will be determined after the election, he said, when the results establish the balance of power in the council.