DA says it wants to unseat ANC, but its deeds say otherwise

The ANC, a party that Joburg voters rejected in the 2021 local government election, has returned to run the City of Joburg using a minority party as a front. In the 2021 election, the ANC lost 11%, taking it from 44.5% in 2016 to 33.60%. A loss of this proportion can be interpreted as a rejection.

The Democratic Alliance wants everyone to believe it did everything it could to keep Joburg out of the hands of the ANC.

The problem is that this is not true. In the days leading to the council meeting of 26 January, wherein DA mayor Dr Mpho Phalatse was voted out, parties in the multiparty coalition had made multiple attempts to save the coalition.

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ActionSA, a party that the DA wants voters to blame for the collapse of the coalition, had made a sacrifice as part of its contribution to saving the coalition.

ActionSA had offered to give up its two portfolios in the mayoral committee (mayco), transport and economic development, in order to accommodate the Patriotic Alliance (PA). This sacrifice was going to see the PA, which had accepted this offer, returning to the coalition.

All coalition partners accepted this offer except the Democratic Alliance, whose negotiating team had asked to present it to the party’s fedex. The DA rejected this offer, citing concerns around the previous conduct of the PA.

The DA said the “PA cannot expect to return to a coalition they previously betrayed in a more favourable position than the one they enjoyed prior to their defection to the ANC”.

In his letter to the chair of the coalition, DA leader John Steenhuisen wrote “if we reward past bad faith, we virtually guarantee continued bad faith”.

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This statement shows Steenhuisen misses the point: the purpose of bringing the PA back to the coalition was to save the coalition and ensure that the coalition has enough numbers to defeat the motion of no confidence.

The DA does not reward its partners with positions, viewing this as short-sighted and the coalition is a partnership, not some relationship where if parties “behave” well they get rewarded.

The DA then made a counteroffer, agreeing to give the PA one mayco position, the roads and transport portfolio, with a budget of over R7 billion and not economic development, with a budget of only R800 million.

The DA went on to say: “Mayoral portfolios that are especially vulnerable to patronage politics and tenderpreneurship should not be entrusted to the Patriotic Alliance until they have demonstrated significant good faith.” To which the PA took offence.

The DA had no right to demand that the PA should demonstrate good faith for it to deserve a portfolio and pointing this out is not advocating for the Patriotic Alliance. None of the [other] coalition partners had to demonstrate good faith before they assumed portfolios.

If the DA was worried about the PA being corrupt, why would they be willing to give them the transport portfolio with a budget of R7 billion and deny them the economic development portfolio with only R800 million?

If the DA was aware of corruption that the PA was involved in, the DA had a responsibility to report such corruption and not even consider negotiating with the PA. The falling out between the DA and the PA meant that the multiparty coalition went into council without the majority required to defeat the motion of no confidence.

When the DA made their counteroffer they called it the “final” offer, but a night before the council meeting, the DA came back to offer the PA the two portfolios: transport and economic development. It is disingenuous for the DA to want to blame ActionSA for the collapse of the coalition.

It is the DA that insulted a potential coalition partner and wanted them to dance first before they agreed to a deal, only to offer them the very deal they wanted in the last minute. It is with this context that Joburg voters should ask themselves who collapsed the coalition. Clearly the DA did.

Despite all this, coalition partners including ActionSA defended the DA mayor, which demonstrated their commitment to the coalition, yet the DA still wants voters to believe ActionSA betrayed the coalition.

Dr Phalatse herself, in an interview on 702, admitted to being “very disappointed” by her party’s inability to save the coalition.

Voters must decide what to do with a party that preaches the gospel of unseating the ANC but secretly facilitates its return to power.

It is time voters realised the attitude with which the DA treated its coalition partners. ActionSA did everything it could to save the coalition.

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-Sthembelo Majola is the ActionSA caucus spokesperson in Johannesburg