Coalitions at local govt: Adaptation is key to survival

There is a common theme when the Covid pandemic slows to become an epidemic and implacable political foes compromise in order to form coalition local governments.

The thread is this: adaptation is key to survival.

Former president PW Botha, despised by many as an apartheid bully, was spot-on in 1981 when he warned South Africans: “We must adapt or die.”

His own National Party, once so dominant, failed to adapt sufficiently. Its sleazy rump, the New National Party, led by the oleaginous Marthinus “Kortbroek” van Schalkwyk, was swallowed by the seemingly all-powerful ANC, less than 20 years after PW’s warning.

And now the ANC itself, blinded by conceits of imagined omnipotence, is disintegrating.

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President Cyril Ramaphosa may soon recover from Covid but there is no such prognosis for the party he leads – just a one-way ticket to the morgue.

This ineluctable fate was sealed when the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and ActionSA voted with the Democratic Alliance (DA) to prevent the ANC governing major metros.

Starved of access to these multibillion-dollar municipal budgets, the ANC networks of corruption and patronage are withering.

With donations shrinking under the glare of the Political Party Funding Act, the organisation remains unable to pay its staff properly.

But the ANC’s opponents, having achieved their aim at local government level, now have to adapt. Harsh words exchanged between ActionSA and the DA, among others, must be tempered if their majority coalition in Johannesburg is to succeed. Adapt or die.

All 10 parties in the coalition will still have to hold each other to account, otherwise they may betray their voters.

Holding to account can be done formally, politely, without unnecessarily antagonising coalition partners.

One way to hold members of the mayoral committee (MMCs) to account is to ask written questions for written reply in council. Once tabled in council, these MMC replies are in the public domain and can be followed up by the media.

Journalists don’t make enough use of this treasure trove of information. I shall use this channel courteously to ask
the new MMC for public safety David Tembe (ActionSA) for a redacted version of a detailed question he did not acknowledge from me when repeatedly asked during his tenure as Johannesburg chief of police.

No doubt Johannesburg residents would appreciate plausible explanations about why certain bylaws are not enforced.

These include bylaws on traffic, noise and on people living in public open spaces. What are the reasons for lack of enforcement, what remedies are planned and when will they be implemented? No pressure.

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There are many questions which MMCs from different parties will be called to answer in writing. We must find a balance between unnecessarily hostile probing and the banality of “sweetheart” questions where MMCs are invited to boast.

Constructive questioning is one way in which local government coalitions can provide herd immunity against one-party dominance through which corruption and stagnation have prevailed under the Nats and the ANC.

Politicians, voters, residents – all of us can thrive if we adapt in a positive manner.

Through adaptation we shall overcome Covid and political turmoil.