‘One party won’t win Gauteng’ – opposition in the Multi-Party Charter

Opposition parties are confident that, together, their votes will bring down the ANC in Gauteng.

The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in Gauteng is confident it will garner sufficient votes in province to help bring down the ruling party in the province.

The IFP, which largely had dominance in KwaZulu-Natal, is now part of the so-called Multi-Party Charter, a pre-election pact which included the Democratic Alliance (DA) and ActionSA, among others.

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IFP provincial secretary Alco Ngobese said the party would succeed in Gauteng. He said a lot of people were joining the IFP and its campaigns were going well.

“We just launched our manifesto in Germiston on 14 April, which was a success. We are very optimistic we will do well on 29 May.”

Coalitions inevitable

On coalitions, Ngobese said there was no way one could run away from them.

“IFP will be part of the government in Gauteng come 29 May. For now, we don’t want to pronounce who we will work with or who we won’t work with because the numbers will then tell us which direction we must take after elections,” he said.

“There’s no way one party will win Gauteng with [a] majority. All parties in Gauteng will have to work together to render services to our communities.”

In 2009, the ANC in Gauteng received 64.04% support. In 2014 it got 53.59% but in 2019, that dropped to 50.19%, reflecting a clear decline in its support in the province.

DA Gauteng leader and premier candidate Solly Msimanga said Gauteng had always been a good litmus test for the rest of the country.

He said in terms of the polling the DA used, “which was always right”, indications were that ANC’s support would fall below 40% in Gauteng and nationally.

“Now they are polling at about 35% or 36%. This is our own internal polling, which we’ve always used. And this is why we are putting the resources here to make sure that we’re able to then put up a contest,” he said.

Msimanga said Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi “knows this is something that is gone”.

He added: “This is why you see the level of desperation, and all these announcements of jobs and these new initiatives that were never there and have never been forthcoming. So, we are confident that we will form part of our government in 2024, from 29 May.

“This is why we’ve already started even putting our government document together, talking about what we want to achieve when we get in and how we will be able to run an effective government.”

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Msimanga said the DA was ready to engage with their multi-party partners regarding matters pertaining to a coalition government.

He said this did not necessarily mean the DA would engage with only one party.

“The multi-party [pact] consists of a number of parties, so we will be engaging with all the parties on how do we ensure there is proper government, not only in Gauteng.

“It looks like KwaZulu-Natal and the Northern Cape are also going to go that route as well. In the Western Cape, they will never even get there.”

‘Exciting opportunity for parties’

Rise Mzansi’s national chair and Gauteng premier candidate, Vuyiswa Ramokgopa, said the fact that there was no party which would gain an absolute majority in the province was a very exciting opportunity for the party to usher in a coalition government.

She said it was important to rethink the idea of winning and losing. “It’s not simply about getting 51%. It’s about being able to put together a government of parties that are able to work together to deliver on behalf of the citizens.

“Those parties may not necessarily hold the same ideologies, they may not necessarily be of the same sort of origin but they need to work together to deliver on behalf of the citizens,” she said.

“And I believe myself and the team of candidates we’ve put together will be a formidable part of a governing party and a governing coalition in Gauteng.”

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“The truth is, this is how our electoral system works. It’s proportional representation. So, if nobody gets 51%, everybody needs to be comfortable with the idea of working with other people.”

Ramokgopa said for Rise Mzansi entering into a coalition was not about trading positions and power.

“We’re not going to sell ourselves just to be able to be in a governing coalition.

“If we are not able to come to a conclusion because the people that we sit across the table with don’t adhere to those values, then it’s also fine, especially with the fact that coalitions like in metros are less,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Electoral Commission of South Africa hosted the signing of the Electoral Code of Conduct by 52 parties and five independent candidates contesting the elections in Gauteng.

They publicly pledged to adhere to the code of conduct.