Don’t ignore small parties, they are the kingmakers

The election campaigns winding down this week with rallies have proven that local government is the most important sphere of government.

The significance of this segment of governance is the fact that, at the forefront of the campaigns, are the national leaders – you would be forgiven to think that it’s Cyril Ramaphosa, or John Steenhuisen, or Julius Malema who are in the running.

This is all thanks to the 2016 local government election, where three crucial metros were lost by the governing ANC to the Democratic Alliance, which came to power with the help of smaller political parties.

We saw big players come cap-in-hand to smaller ones, begging them to partner for coalitions. This was a turning point: the small parties stopped being discarded as unimportant groups that should be ignored.

In Johannesburg, first under the DA coalition and currently the ANC’s, they wouldn’t govern the metros without Congress of the People, Inkatha Freedom Party, African Christian Democratic Party, Patriotic Alliance, United Democratic Movement, Freedom Front Plus, African Independent Congress and Al Jama-ah.

While some of the ANC leaders displayed antagonism towards Cope as its former breakaway in places like Ekurhuleni, Cope and others have proven to be kingmakers.

From time to time, the ANC is forced to approach former breakaways to help it rule metros. While the governing party is antagonistic, other parties, such as the IFP in KwaZulu-Natal, UDM and AIC in the Eastern Cape, embrace the smaller parties as its partners.

The IFP and ANC don’t see eye to eye in KwaZulu-Natal, but the IFP kept the ANC in power in Johannesburg.

Similarly, Cope and ANC were historical opponents. Cope Ekurhuleni mayoral candidate Ndzipo Kalipa was harassed by some ANC and SACP members even after returning. After the torment, he recently rejoined Cope.

ANC stalwart Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka was last week unfairly attacked on Twitter by ANC rebel Carl Niehaus for being an “elitist, arrogant, self-conceited Cope member”.

Niehaus apparently deliberately distorted the politician’s statement in an ANC meeting in Joburg.

Mlambo-Ngcuka condemned the hiring of unskilled comrades and was not referring to comrades who “can’t count their fingers”, as Niehaus claimed.

Her sentiment was expressed in the past by the likes of Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and even Cyril Ramaphosa himself.

The role played by small parties in the municipal councils in our democracy should not to be underplayed. Similarly the independents to be elected on Monday are bound to make our democracy more functional and dynamic.

DA leader John Steenhuisen might be shooting himself in the foot by dismissing these parties as a mere “one-night stand” – implying they would disappear the next morning.

The DA, like the ANC, should remember that it might need these parties to establish coalition governments in Tshwane, Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Nelson Mandela Bay again, where these parties are “kings”.

Let’s hope Steenhuisen was merely electioneering or politicking – and in politics and electioneering what you say, may not necessarily be what you mean.