Coalition talks over with withdrawal of DA from negotiating table
The DA has closed the door on any possible coalitions, wishing the MHRF luck with ongoing negotiations in the absence of the DA's 17 council seats, without which no opposition coalition is possible.
The DA, MHRF and EFF were set to meet today at 14:00 with a request from the MHRF to reschedule for 11:00, after the EFF failed to show up for last week’s coalition talks which went ahead between the DA and MHRF.
However, DA mayoral candidate Bosman Grobler, issued a letter around 12:00 stating: “After careful consideration as well as deliberations at national level, the DA in Steve Tshwete will not be entering into formal coalitions at this moment”.
He said the DA will head back to council as strong opposition, and work with other parties to keep the executive to account.
“Should good and trustworthy relationships develop over time, we may speak about formal coalitions and overturning power in future,” the letter concludes, adding “in our opinion it is necessary to build relationships of trust over time, before entering into formal agreements”.
Mr Grobler, a serving member of the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature, will now head back to the province.
The MHRF and EFF cannot form a ruling coalition with seven and nine seats respectively. Even if independent candidate, Thomas Mpye, agreed to a coalition, the MHRF, EFF and independent combined, will have 17 seats.
If by some miracle the FF+ decided to get into bed with coalition partners, and add its three seats to the coalition tally, the total of 20 is still not enough to force the ANC from power.
A formal council sitting will be called within the next 14 days, where an ANC mayor, speaker and chief whip will most probably be elected.
The EFF can decide to form a coalition with the ANC, bringing the combined seat tally to 30, which is a majority in council.
If the MHRF walked back on its current stance of not negotiating with the ANC, the combined total without the EFF would come to 28, just short of an outright majority.
The ANC’s majority dropped from an outright majority of 32 seats, to an all time low 21 ward allocations.
The ANC did not receive a single proportional seat, forfeiting seven to the MHRF, three to the EFF (from six to nine), one to the FF+ (from two to three) and a single seat to independent incomer Mpye.
