Uneasy coalitions likely in KwaDukuza and Maphumulo

A stayaway by thousands of voters gave a surprise result to last week’s elections, damaging the leading parties and giving smaller parties an unexpected Black Friday deal.

The African National Congress lost control of two of iLembe district’s 4 municipalities, forcing it to seek sweetheart deals with other parties to stay near the levers of power.

In KwaDukuza municipal area, although the ANC won 27 of the 30 ward seats – and the Democratic Alliance the other 3 – the low voter turnout lent much more weight to the proportional representation (PR) vote, causing a huge upset.

The ANC was left with 29 seats and other parties 30 of the total 59 seats in council.

In Maphumulo, the ANC won 11 seats, the Inkatha Freedom party 10, Economic Freedom Fighters 1 and Independent Alliance 1.

The ANC will only retain control if it enters into a partnership with one of the EFF or IA, as the IFP has stated that it will not go into coalition with the ANC.

In the remaining municipalities, Mandeni and Ndwedwe, the ANC has clear majorities.

Apart from the ANC losing so much ground, the surprise result of the election in KwaDukuza was the performance of the brand new parties, ActionSA and the Independent Alliance.

The new ActionSA team in council will consist of Nel Sewraj, Gerard de Billot, Sipho Zungu, Comfort Mwandla and Aresh Singh.

The IA is Mbusiso Madlala, Melisizwe Commie Ntleko, Phathabakhe Shezi, CM Ngwane and Ebrahim Kolia.

A hung council is when no single party has the majority of seats in a particular council.

That is why parties go into coalition, promising to vote along similar lines in order to gain advantages in other places which are determined by the coalition agreement.

Most local coalitions are dictated by national leadership, unless the party only competes locally, like the IA.

This means that a national coalition of the ANC and EFF for example, would make it impossible for KDM parties to form an opposition, even if talks have been held.

ActionSA candidate, Nel Sewraj told the Courier that he had reached out to opposition parties locally.

“I was excited when I saw that the ANC did not get a majority and immediately made contact with local representatives for all of the opposition parties. The fact remains that if a party’s national committee has made a blanket statement on who they will and will not coalesce with, local coalition talks have no bearing,” he said.

On a national level, the DA has said it will not go into coalition with the ANC or EFF, while the IFP has said no coalition talks with the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal will be held.

This leaves many parties looking to become uneasy bedfellows locally, but that is the cost of coalitions.

The composition of the iLembe District Municipal council is still to be decided, as seats are allocated on a PR basis by department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta).

District PR votes count for 40% of the seats, which is 14 in iLembe.

The remaining 60% of the seats are filled proportionally by councillors sent from each individual municipality, in iLembe’s case, Ndwedwe, Mandeni, Maphumulo and KwaDukuza.

This is also done on a PR basis to fill the remaining 21 seats, for a total of 35. KwaDukuza has 8 seats, Mandeni 5, Ndwedwe 5 and Maphumulo 3.

The councils have 14 days to hold their first meetings.

In these first council meetings, the councillors elect a speaker, mayor and deputy mayor.

Council dates have yet to be announced.

The 14 PR seats that have been filled can be found below.

The iLembe District Council allocation is:

ANC – 7 seats.
Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) – 3 seats.
Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) – 1 seat.
Democratic Alliance (DA) – 1 seat.
Independent Alliance (IA) – 1 seat.
ActionSA – 1 seat.

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