The DA in the North West will not form a coalition with the ANC nor with the EFF in the JB Marks Local Municipality, the party confirmed on Thursday.
The Potchefstroom-based JB Marks council is one of the two hung municipalities under Dr Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality where the DA has always had a strong showing.
The DA’s Chris Hattingh said his party will only make an arrangement with a party that supports the DA’s mandate and vision.
“We are not prepared to form a coalition with the ANC and the EFF. We are prepared to work with other political parties that share our values and our goals,” Hattingh said.
The DA snatched a ward from the Freedom Front Plus and won by a big margin in the JB Marks municipality’s biggest ward, which had over 7 000 voters.
The DA has secured 25.36% of the votes in JB Marks, which translates to 34 of the 66 council seats and could scoop control of the council if it gets another party to team up with and increase the votes percentage to 50 plus one as required by the electoral system.
Political analyst at North West University, Professor Barry Hanyane, said the reality of hung municipalities and coalitions of convenience will soon be felt in councils.
This would be similar to coalitions that collapsed in metropolitan municipalities like Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay, with constant disagreements leaving those councils unable to perform their duties while engaged in squabbles, sometimes legal ones.
Hanyane said the current situation points to a need to regulate coalitions.
“It can’t be business as usual. It is extremely important that as you talk about coalitions, there must be one legislation that speaks to how coalitions should be arranged and it does not happen post elections,” he said.
Hanyane said in JB Marks where the three big parties (ANC, DA and EFF) are intolerant of each other, a well considered coalition needs to be formed, an arrangement that will include other smaller political parties.
JB Marks Local Municipality was established through the amalgamation of Ventersdorp Local Municipality and Tlokwe Local Municipality in 2016. The merger helped the ANC to a certain extent in the 2016 polls to win votes from the black African community.
