Our democracy will only operate smoothly once ANC accepts defeat

Those who believe in anarchy would call the shabby attempts to remove City of Johannesburg executive mayor Dr Mpho Phalatse by a group of opposition parties true democracy.

I disagree. I believe in a democracy in which if you are a losing party, you have to respect the will of the people. Democracy dictates that if you are beaten in a free and fair election, you move aside and let the winner or winners take control and do what they were elected to do – govern.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) did not win a majority in the City of Johannesburg during the November local government election and was forced to enter into a coalition arrangement with smaller parties, dubbed the multiparty government.

Collectively, their total votes exceeded those of the ANC which won a majority but one too marginal to enable it to govern. The real king-maker of the moment then was the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

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While it was good then for the EFF to flirt with the DA, they refused to cooperate with the ANC. This forced the ANC and its small allies into the back-benches. This was the EFF’s retaliatory strike against the ANC which had refused its impractical demands to allow it some Cabinet posts, to ban Die Stem part of the national anthem and let land expropriation happen while the red berets promised to assist to ensure the land Bill was passed. It was rejected in parliament as the two-thirds majority could not be achieved.

The 2021 electoral outcomes meant that some of minority parties that were used to power under the ANC-led coalition were left out of the new Johannesburg government. Their dissatisfaction with the results was demonstrated by their disruptive behaviour during Phalatse’s election as mayor in the aftermath of the local government polls.

You could tell then that it was not about the interests of the people but about power and the personal interests of the individuals. Had it been about residents’ interests, they would have respected the results.

With the second defeat since the 2016 local government polls in the metros of Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and even Nelson Mandela Bay, the ANC should concede that voters are rejecting it as government. There is a synchronised action to remove parties elected into power in 2021.

What happened at the Knysna municipality last week and the manoeuvres at Nelson Mandela Bay and Johannesburg are not coincidental, but are a clear plan by the ANC to attain power via the back door. We can expect similar moves in Ekurhuleni, Tshwane and elsewhere. The agenda is the same.

In all these cases, the smaller parties that have no hope of governing continue to be used in a power-mongering game hatched elsewhere. They join because they are used to eating the crumbs that fall from the ANC’s table.

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By participating in this undemocratic machination, these minority parties are killing the democracy they claim to have been fighting to preserve. The planned removal of Phalatse through a no confidence vote is not in the interests of the residents that they claim to represent in the city.

The residents of Johannesburg deserve stable leadership and better service delivery, and so do voters who exercise their democratic rights to vote for representatives of their choice elsewhere, including in Knysna and Nelson Mandela Bay.

This democracy of ours will only operate smoothly once the ANC accepts defeat and gets used to being a constructive opposition party instead of yearning to rule until Jesus returns, as they put it.