Opposition parties’ efforts to form coalitions in SA’s biggest metros have been thrown into disarray with the DA’s refusal to back its former Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba’s bid to once again lead SA’s biggest city.
The surprise DA decision, announced yesterday after a meeting of the party’s federal executive committee (Fedex), could potentially unravel decisions reached by opposition parties in Tshwane to install a DA mayor with the help of Mashaba’s ActionSA.
It also throws a lifeline to the ANC, which has been sidelined in the talks, but which now could potentially take control of Johannesburg in coalition with smaller parties.
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In what could be another blow to the DA, the FF+, a key partner if the party wants to take over Tshwane, said the DA’s move could jeopardise the agreement the opposition parties had reached in Tshwane.
An angry Mashaba told the Sunday Times yesterday that he was shocked by the DA's decision. He said opposition parties were still waiting for the DA to come back to brief them at a meeting scheduled for 5pm today.
He said multiparty coalition talks are now back at square one because of the DA's decision.
“We can’t work with dishonest people. I have actually said many times that I will not actually work with people who double-cross me,” said Mashaba.
“I take it as a direct double-cross, I will not work with people who can openly double-cross you. In fact I feel double-crossed by the DA and you double-cross Herman Mashaba, that’s when you will see his brutality.
“This is a clear demonstration of how the DA has negotiated with all of us in total, total bad faith. So if that is their position, I think we might as well not really negotiate and take our position. So basically that means the deal in Tshwane is off.”
Mashaba said the DA decision would hand the metros to the ANC. “So they can continue with the ANC, they are not going to get the support from us,” he said.
The DA’s decision will raise eyebrows among the DA's suburban voters, who perceived Mashaba as a hard-working mayor during his stint in Johannesburg.
The breakdown in opposition talks presents an opportunity for the ANC to form minority governments in Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Nelson Mandela Bay.
If the DA and ActionSA nominate candidates for mayor of Johannesburg tomorrow, an ANC candidate is likely to get more votes than them.
A proposed deal on Friday would have seen the DA take over Tshwane and Mashaba being elected mayor of Johannesburg.
In Tshwane the coalition would have had 108 votes out of 214, giving it a 50% + 1 majority. These were made up of DA (69), ActionSA (19), FF+ (17), ACDP (2) and Cope (1).
But with ActionSA out of the deal, and the FF+ considering its position, the DA may lose control of Tshwane.
With ActionSA out of the deal, and the FF+ considering its position, the DA may lose control of Tshwane
— ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba
“But if they feel that they want to govern with the ANC, because for me this is the reading I am getting because they have confirmed in the past, including Helen Zille ... so basically what they are doing, basically, is to give this government to the ANC. They will co-govern with the ANC,” said Mashaba.
Announcing the DA's decision yesterday, party leader John Steenhuisen said that because the IFP and Patriotic Alliance had already announced they would back the ANC, it was going to be impossible to form a majority government in Johannesburg without their 15 combined seats.
Given the close relations between Mashaba and the EFF, Steenhuisen said the DA wanted to avoid the 2016 situation when the EFF dictated the terms of their relationship when Mashaba was mayor.
He said it was “impossible for the other opposition parties to form a majority coalition without the support of the EFF. In other words even if we do put together a minority coalition government in Johannesburg, the EFF would have to vote with us in order to enable us to take important decisions, pass budgets and bring stable governments. The coalition will always therefore be subject to the whims and demands of the EFF.”
Other prospective key coalition partners yesterday expressed shock at the DA’s approach, saying the move threatened the plan to block the ANC’s return to power in Tshwane, Johannesburg and Nelson Mandela Bay.
“It is short-sighted from the DA because they are jeopardising Tshwane while we are still in negotiations,” FF+ leader Pieter Groenewald said yesterday.
“The question is why did the DA just go public and not communicate with the other parties first? The DA must realise that they need other parties in a coalition and must respect them. If not, they will create unstable majority coalition governments.”
UDM leader Bantu Holomisa, who was part of Friday’s meeting, said Tshwane would land in the hands of the ANC unless the DA changed its mind before tomorrow. He said his party had given the DA until this afternoon to change its position.
“That stance in Joburg might affect Tshwane ... They are not going to bully us, so if they don’t want to take the decision of the other partners in the discussions on Gauteng and they think that they’ve got veto powers and also [are] thinking that they can use us, they must forget, they are not going to get that. So the ANC might as well take Tshwane, take Gauteng. Unless the DA changes its stance nobody will support them for takeover in Tshwane. They must forget about that,” he said.
Holomisa blamed the sour personal relations between Mashaba and DA federal council chair Helen Zille for the breakdown of talks. He said this played itself out during the meeting of opposition leaders.
“At one stage Zille wanted Mashaba to sign a letter ... to say you won’t contest for election for mayorship, and Mashaba said ‘Who the hell do you think you are to give me an instruction like that?’ That’s sheer arrogance and we told Zille in the meeting to stop it.”
ACDP leader Kenneth Meshoe echoed Holomisa’s sentiments.
Zille denied asking Mashaba to sign a letter declaring he would not contest the mayorship.
“This has got nothing to do with personalities, it’s got everything to do with living the experience of having a majority coalition which was dependent on the EFF before; the disaster that that turned out to be; learning from that mistake and not repeating it. That is what adults, analytical people do — they don’t make the same mistake twice,” said Zille.
DA insiders who attended yesterday’s Fedex meeting said top leaders advised the meeting against making Mashaba mayor of Johannesburg.
One leader said none of the Fedex members objected to this approach. Instead they argued that the DA, as the biggest party in the coalition in Johannesburg, had nothing to gain in a Mashaba coalition.
DA insiders said top leaders advised against making Mashaba mayor of Johannesburg
“People also kept reminding us how in the last administration Mashaba would come to Fedex begging us to agree to things, otherwise saying the EFF would pull out. He was basically the EFF representative at Fedex who kept on coming to present EFF demands, which if we didn’t agree to, they would threaten to pull out,” said the source.
As the opposition pact crumbled, the ANC national executive is meeting today to consider its options and pick its mayoral candidates.
The party suffered a setback early in the week when EFF president Julius Malema announced that his party had terminated its negotiations with the ANC .
With the EFF's support, the ANC would have easily taken control of most of the hung councils, except Johannesburg and Tshwane. The EFF wanted the ANC to agree to give Johannesburg to Mashaba and allow the EFF to take over Tshwane.
The ANC has ruled out going back to the negotiating table with the EFF following last Sunday’s meeting.
“They’ve taken a decision to terminate talks so we can’t talk anything with them,” said ANC head of elections Fikile Mbalula.
Mbalula said the ANC will go ahead and attempt to form governments in all hung councils.
“We’ll form governments where we can with those who want to form governments with us. Where we can’t, we will be in opposition.”
He said the ANC’s approach will not be to disrupt councils, and it may consider working with its arch-rivals where the need arises.
However, he said there are now no plans to form any coalition with the DA.
Zille also denied holding talks with the ANC, saying DA councillors will vote for DA candidates. “The bottom line is this: we will put up our candidate and we will expect our caucus to vote with our candidate, that is a caucus decision,” said Zille.
“The people who made it impossible to get a stable majority coalition government in Johannesburg were the Patriotic Alliance and the IFP that have announced they will vote with the ANC. If they had stuck with us, we would have got a stable majority coalition that would not depend on the EFF,” she said.
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