Weeks of talks – and still no formal coalition government in Tshwane

A multi-party meeting was expected to take place this week in another attempt to create a formal coalition agreement between political parties in Tshwane.

The multi-party meeting would consist of the DA, Freedom Front Plus, ActionSA, Cope and ACDP to finalise coalition agreements before the establishment of the mayoral committee.

The DA’s candidate, Randall Williams, was elected as the mayor unopposed last week without any formal coalition agreements between the parties.

Unisa political science Professor Dirk Kotze said the delays in finalising coalition talks were possibly due to negotiations over the mayoral committee positions.

Kotze said the mayoral committee would be an indicator of which parties formed a coalition government with the DA.

“For the mayor to constitute the mayoral committee, they need to first formalise the coalition agreements, which has not happened yet,” Kotze.

Kotze said while most council duties currently could proceed without the coalition government, but from next year this would not be the case.

“Next year on, things such as the passing of the budget will need a majority vote and that will require a coalition government agreement,” he said.

He said among some issues causing delays in finalising the coalition talks were because the agreements not only had to be made for one municipality but several.

“There are also a lot of parties involved. In the case of Tshwane, there are five parties; so the more parties there are, the more complex the case is.”

Sharing the mayoral committee positions with several parties could also be an issue, Kotze said.

The previous mayoral committee consisted of only one member who was not from the DA, namely health MMC Sakkie du Plooy from the Freedom Front Plus.

“Certain parties may want the positions which the DA wants; so that might also be a factor in the delays.”

Kotze said although the mayor was elected unopposed when it came to issues of the passing of budgets there might be disagreements if the opposition parties would feel they were not consulted in the process.

“Overall, I think there will be a more peaceful council because the current coalition does not depend on the EFF’s support. The parties also have been in a coalition before,” he said.

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Re-elected mayor Williams hoped that Tshwane’s continuing coalition talks might help avoid previous political chaos.

Last year, 214 councillors were out of office for months, while the city was placed under administrative control.

“From our experience, we have as a party learnt that signed formal agreements are the key to stable government,” he said.

Currently, there was still no formal agreements to form a coalition government in the metro – despite weeks of negotiations.

“Our door is open to most of the parties [except the ANC and the EFF]. There are 13 other parties in council. Our doors are open for them to come and discuss coalition agreements with us,” said Williams.

The DA’s Christo van der Heever was elected chief whip while Katlego Mathebe was the speaker; both returning to their previous positions.

None of the parties in the council, including the ANC and EFF, submitted nominations for any of the three positions.

This ensured no voting was necessary and the DA won unopposed.

In absence of formal agreements, it was not clear whether the mayoral committee would constitute a multi-party government.

Williams said this would depend on the coalition talks, which were led by the national leaders on behalf of the regional leadership.

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