Tshwane mayoral committee appointment still hung on unfinished coalitions

As the deadline for the appointment of Tshwane mayoral committees neared, political parties were still trying to find ways to have a coalition government.

Yet another multi-party meeting consisting of the DA, Freedom Front Plus, ActionSA, Cope and ACDP took place on Monday afternoon to try and meet Tuesday’s deadline for the establishment of the mayoral committee in Tshwane metro.

The DA’s candidate, Randall Williams, was elected as the mayor unopposed two weeks ago without any formal coalition agreements between the parties.

Political analyst from Tshwane University of Technology, Levy Ndou said the delay in the formation of coalitions after a month of talks prompted worry over what the state of political leadership would be in the municipalities as parties struggled to find middle ground.

Ndou said the formation of the coalition was mainly the responsibility of the DA as the leading party in the three metros in Gauteng.

“It is a very tricky situation that we are about to see because the formation of the committees will give an indication who are the formal coalition partners.

“The other tricky thing is that Herman Mashaba (ActionSA leader) is not a happy person after being dumped by the DA (in Johannesburg mayoral election) and the DA would need to give him a position,” he said.

He said the cause of the delays in coalition talks was due to political parties failing to agree on a coalition government.

“The DA has taken a decision to be in charge of the three metros, this is a test for the DA leadership. If they cannot convince the other parties in the formation of the committees then we have to look at what will happen in the next five years.”

Ndou said with the parties’ failure to conclude coalition talks, “one can predict that the next five years could be disastrous”.

He said should the parties fail to form coalitions by Tuesday the provincial government could intervene.

“What this means is that the people voted in power are failing to come together. But I do not think the provincial government will be too harsh in the intervention right now, they might give the parties more time.”

ActionSA lead negotiator in coalition talks, John Moodey told Rekord the talks were continuing but there was still no formal coalition.

Moodey could not give further comment as to what were the causes of the talks prolonging over three weeks.

Political analyst from the University of Pretoria, Professor Tinyiko Maluleke said Tshwane should have been easier to reach coalition government “because the DA has what looks like a strong coalition there”.

“But the heart of this problem is that the DA has been supported by parties which they do not know what they want because there were no prior agreements. It is possible that the DA, once they found out what the parties wanted, were shocked which is maybe why we have a delay now.”

In Tshwane there are 10 mayoral committee positions which the five parties have to divide among themselves.

“Every party will try to extract as much benefit as possible for themselves. Part of the reason behind delays is that there are not enough positions to throw around.”

Maluleke also raised concerns over stability in coalitions.

“I do not see these principle-less coalition lasting long, I think there are many storms ahead of them. I think in the first three years they will be stable but will become harder and harder as it digs into the five years.”