DA leader John Steenhuisen says his party will do all in its power to prevent the creation of an ANC-EFF coalition government if no party wins more than 50% at the votes in next year’s general election.
Steenhuisen, who is expected to be endorsed for another term as party leader when federal congress election results are announced today, told the Sunday Times yesterday South Africa would not survive such a “marriage of convenience”.
With the ANC expected to fail to garner enough votes to form the next government on its own, there is speculation over whether President Cyril Ramaphosa’s party would seek a coalition with Julius Malema’s EFF or pursue a relationship with the DA and other parties.
Steenhuisen said an ANC-EFF coalition would be disastrous for the country, given what he termed an “extractive” relationship between the two parties.
In his mind, there are two nightmare scenarios that could happen at the polls next year.
The first would be the ANC retaining a slight majority, which he predicts would lead to “more radicalism settling in like you saw with [former Zimbabwean president Robert] Mugabe when he started to lose power in the 90s”.
The second would be an ANC-EFF coalition, “because if you look at how extractive the EFF have been on the ANC from the opposition benches, dragging them down the rabbit hole of expropriation without compensation, nationalising the Reserve Bank ... all of those things. I can only imagine how extractive the EFF and Malema will become should the ANC need them for a majority,” said Steenhuisen.
To stop either of these things from happening, the DA’s first prize would be to win enough support to form its own coalition with like-minded political parties.
“If that doesn't happen, I want to commit the DA to ensuring that we do everything we can to stop an ANC-EFF coalition from taking over. And that means we may have to look at the least-worst options and what they are. They'll only emerge once we know what the results of that election are,” he said.
“I'll work backwards from the nightmare scenario and I will then say I will work towards building a new majority, that I will do everything I can if that doesn't work to prevent the EFF and ANC taking over.”
He would not say if that would include working with one of the two parties against the other.
I can only imagine how extractive the EFF and Malema will become should the ANC need them for a majority
— DA leader John Steenhuisen
DA federal council chair Helen Zille, who is seeking re-election and is uncontested, concurred with Steenhuisen.
“I think that’s the worst case scenario for South Africa, I think there would be massive disinvestment, unemployment would go to 60% and it would be a disaster for the country,” said Zille.
“I don’t know what that looks like, I’m not standing for the leadership, so I don’t come and say this is the vision this is where I’m going. All I can say is I agree with the fundamental point that we must do all we can to prevent an EFF coalition with the ANC because that would literally be a disaster.
"I mean poverty would explode even more than it has already, disinvestment would be huge, the economy would go into a tailspin, the rand would completely be decimated of value,” she said.
Steenhuisen said the DA putting forward a legislative proposal to stabilise coalitions.
If adopted by parliament it would limit the number of motions of no confidence that can be called and lock parties into a coalition agreement for not less than a year.
Steenhuisen believes this would go a long way towards stabilising coalitions, especially in municipalities such as Tshwane, which has had several mayors in less than two years since the 2021 local government elections.
I think that’s the worst case scenario for South Africa, I think there would be massive disinvestment, unemployment would go to 60% and it would be a disaster for the country
— DA federal council chair Helen Zille on EFF/ANC coalition
He said the chaos in municipalities led to cynicism and dismay among voters, and the instability of local government coalitions, clearly influenced by “chequebook politics”, could not be allowed at national and provincial level.
“That's also one of the reasons we're putting in a legislative proposal that you limit the number of motions of no confidence that you can have within a time frame — in a year or in a term — and also looking at fixed-term coalition agreements of, say, a year or two years or maybe two-and-a-half years.
“It was gazetted a little while ago and what it looks at doing is locking those parties in and then, if they have to leave, they've got to provide a compelling reason for doing so, so that you bring that stability and you close that revolving door.
“So obviously if the coalition is unworkable after a year you can ditch it, but you can't ditch it after two months. We need to start looking at these mechanisms and it really amazes me that the ANC, for now the largest party, is not exercised with it ... because it's either going to be them or us that has to be the anchor tenant of any new coalition.”
The DA is also proposing a threshold of at least 2% for a political party to be represented in municipalities as “that would then ensure that the parties are more representative and have a solid support base in those municipalities”.
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