Zukile Majova
As the deal-making between political parties attempting to form coalition governments in hung municipalities goes on, the voter is looking increasingly like they are on the losing side.
In trying to rescue municipalities from endemic corruption, voters in 68 municipalities rejected the ANC and the official opposition DA, reducing their control to below 50%.
But after a full week of deliberations between political parties, no solutions have been found in hung municipalities.
This is largely because smaller parties who see themselves as king makers are making far reaching demands which threaten to undermine even the will of the voter.
Take the EFF for instance: the party is demanding to be given the country’s capital Tshwane to govern alone in return for cooperating with the ANC in Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and elsewhere.
In that municipality, the EFF got just 10.69% of the vote, the ANC 34.63% and the DA 32.03%.
Yet through wheeling and dealing, the EFF, which has won no other town in all of South Africa, is demanding to be given the R43 billion municipality.
Party leader Julius Malema was in Umtata in the Eastern Cape at the weekend where he explained their demands for the mayoral chain.
“We are very simple; we give Mashaba Jo’burg, EFF takes Tshwane, and the ANC takes Ekurhuleni. We don’t co-govern. We all govern alone. We don’t want a partnership. We all govern alone.”
In Johannesburg, coalition talks have been stalled by a demand from ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba who has conditioned his support for any coalition agreement on himself emerging as the mayor of the City of Gold.
This is from a man who got just 16.05% of the vote in Johannesburg.
His most viable partnership at the moment is with the DA, FF+ and the ACDP. But in this coalition, the DA wants the position of executive mayor.
A coalition of the ANC and the EFF has confirmed it is willing to give Mashaba control of Johannesburg.
But Mashaba went to the polls promising to fight corruption associated with the ANC.
