ANC acting Secretary-General Jessie Duarte, has admitted that the governing party no longer enjoys the overwhelming support it used to get and now needs smaller parties to co-govern municipalities.
This as lead-in results for this week’s local government elections show that there are more hung municipalities in 2021 than in the previous municipal polls in 2016. The ANC is the biggest loser judging by preliminary results out so far.
“The preliminary results indicate that we will have more hung councils than in the previous local election. This will necessitate the need for coalitions or other forms of cooperation with other political formations,” Duarte said.
Duarte, however, tried to put up a brave face saying coalitions are not new in the ANC and that since 1994 the party has been in similar situations.
“The ANC’s approach to coalitions remains based on principle, not expediency, and guided by the spirit, mandate and interests of the voters. We remain committed to building unity and fostering cooperation with formations committed to advance the building of truly non-racial, non-sexist and united developmental local government.
“Regrettably, recent experiences with a number of coalitions have not been positive. Most of these coalitions which were led by the opposition have been untidy, messy and premised on gaining power as an end in itself. This has resulted in unstable and self-serving marriages of inconvenience,” she said.
Duarte said the ANC which led metropolitans of City of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni, Mangaung and eThekwini before the 1 November elections, will consider working with parties with the same values and principles as them.
“To avoid this type of political and administrative instability, the ANC will consider an approach with like-minded parties, including affirming the principle accepted in many countries that the party receiving the most votes in a given election should be afforded the first opportunity to form a coalition government, thus mitigating against an unseemly scramble for power.
“This approach is in the interests of effective governance and is consistent with the principles of democracy and proportionality manifested in our Constitution,” said Duarte.
She added that the party would hold an extended national working committee meeting on Friday to finalise its approach to coalitions and any form of co-operation.
Over 90% of the results have been concluded and the final ones will be announced on Thursday evening.
The ANC has so far recorded below 50% nationally at 46%, followed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) at 21.31%, then Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) with 10.39%. The remaining parties share the rest of the votes.
