The DA has repeatedly told South Africans that one of the main reasons it joined the government of national unity was to keep the EFF and the MK Party out of power. It called a possible ANC, EFF and MK arrangement a “doomsday coalition”. This week the DA wrote to both parties asking to talk about running municipalities together.
That is not a small adjustment. It is a reversal, and the party owes its voters a clear explanation of where the new lines sit.
What happened
According to the Sunday Times on TimesLIVE, both the EFF and the MK Party confirmed on Wednesday that they had received a letter from the DA opening the door to coalition arrangements in municipalities.
“Yes, we did receive the letter from the DA and the leadership met with them yesterday. They have asked us to work with them in municipalities, however, we have not yet responded to their proposal,” EFF elections spokesperson Sixolise Gcilishe told the paper.
The MK Party has gone further. Its national negotiator, Dali Mpofu, told SABC News that DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis wrote to Jacob Zuma directly, and that the MK Party accepted the invitation, with a meeting possible within 48 hours, IOL reports. Mpofu also said the MK Party’s negotiators held an exploratory meeting with the ANC on Sunday, and that his party has “no preconditions or non-negotiables”.
The DA is not saying much in public. Federal council chairperson Ashor Sarupen told the Sunday Times the party would not negotiate through the press and was speaking to “all parties interested in non-racialism, the rule of law, anti-corruption and service delivery”. A DA insider put it more plainly: “Geordin is more open to conversations with everyone. He is not John.”
Why it matters
The arithmetic explains the letter. The 4 November vote left more than 130 municipalities, about 65% of councils, without a single party in control, according to coalition guidelines issued by Cogta Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa and reported by The National. And the clock is short: Daily Maverick notes parties have just two weeks to form governments in Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni.
In Johannesburg the DA won 34.79%, the ANC 20.25% and ActionSA 16.27%, according to the Sunday Times. The same report says President Cyril Ramaphosa told ANC leaders to explore a Johannesburg coalition without the DA. The ANC’s NEC meets today to set its coalition strategy. If the ANC walks away, the DA needs numbers from somewhere.
So the DA is keeping its options open. Fair enough in a negotiation. But options are not a policy, and voters were sold a policy.
The accountability questions
What is the new red line? In October Hill-Lewis accused the EFF of facilitating, participating in and leading state capture wherever it held influence, the Sunday Times reports. If that was true then, it is true now. Either the DA has a test that the EFF and MK can pass, in which case it should publish it, or the letters are leverage aimed at the ANC and ActionSA.
Does Helen Zille agree? On voting day, Zille, the DA’s Johannesburg mayoral candidate, reportedly ruled out any arrangement that relied on the EFF to keep a minority government in power, saying the DA would rather sit in opposition. She and Julius Malema are also now in a legal fight, with Malema sending her a letter of demand on Wednesday. It is hard to picture a working council partnership on top of that.
What does “talking to everyone” mean for residents? Hlabisa’s guidelines warn that unstable coalitions lead to mayors and speakers being removed and re-elected, sometimes opportunistically, and that long instability can stall decisions and open the door to fraud. The guidelines are non-binding. Any party asking for their trust should say upfront which deals it will not do.
Even Mpofu doubts the DA and MK share much common ground. His jab that the old Moonshot Pact went “to the moon” with John Steenhuisen lands because it is partly true.
What to watch
The ANC NEC today, the EFF’s answer to the DA, and whether the DA and MK meeting actually happens this week. And, above all, whether any party at these tables publishes the terms it is negotiating on before councils sit.
Talking is not a crime. Changing a position is not a crime. Doing both without telling voters why is how trust in coalitions keeps falling.
Qwezzy