The DA has rubbished suggestions that the country would be best served if the party co-governs with the ANC after next year’s general elections.

According to a recent survey conducted by the Social Research Foundation, 36% of potential voters believe that the ANC would be the most suitable partner for the DA should the ruling party fall below 50% in next year’s polls.

However, DA federal council chairperson Helen Zille yesterday told The Witness that the party rejected views that the ANC was its most fitting partner.

“We don’t agree … as the DA we reject that. The ANC is a party that breaks everything. If the ANC can break Eskom — which was once one of the best run utilities in the world — then they can break anything.”

The DA is currently part of opposition parties seeking to dislodge the ANC from power through a pact called the multi-party charter of SA comprising of, among others, the IFP, ActionSA and the ACDP.

The Social Research Foundation poll comes out amid suspicions by some smaller parties that the DA will ditch them and partner with the ANC should the multi-party charter pact fail to garner 50%+1 of support in next year’s general elections.

The smaller parties’ suspicions were sparked by rumours that the DA was in support of the ANC’s proposal that only parties who met a certain support threshold should be allowed to be part of coalition governments.

A coalition dialogue drafting team is currently finalising a document which will form part of the process of legislating coalition governments in the country.

Should the ANC’s coalition threshold proposal become law, some parties in the multi-party charter will be disqualified from participating in a coalition government.

In 2021, DA federal leader John Steenhuisen said the DA would consider working with the ANC only if the ruling party was under the control of President Cyril Ramaphosa, and not the ANC’s radical economic transformation faction.

However, Steenhuisen, who on numerous occasions dismissed the smaller parties’ claims that the DA was planning a ‘grand coalition’ with the ANC, has since ruled out a possibility of a partnership between the country’s official opposition and the ruling party.

Zille told The Witness that the DA was committed to the multi-party charter comprising of eight political parties.

In KZN, the DA is currently involved in talks which could see the party co-governing the province with the IFP should the ANC fall below 50%+1 in next year’s general elections.

On the other hand, the ANC in KZN, which during the 2021 municipal elections dropped to below 50% of support in the province, said it will not be engaging in any coalition talks as it was confident of securing an outright majority.

ANC provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo recently told The Witness that the ANC in KZN was already planning its ‘victory rally’.

“When the results are announced at the IEC nerve centre, I will be there to witness the ANC’s victory. When an ANC premier is being inaugurated, I will also be there.”