The clock is ticking down for political parties to conclude their behind-closed-doors meetings as the race to parliament remains a contentious one with no party emerging as the outright winner of South Africa’s seventh democratic elections.
With preliminary discussions underway among the major political parties, the Democratic Alliance (DA) is rumoured to be showing a preference for talking to the African National Congress (ANC), while dismissing any coalitions with the EFF and MK party ahead of the unchartered terrain of a coalition government.
Dr Lubna Nadvi, a University of KwaZulu-Natal-based political scientist and analyst, said that coalition governments can work if the relevant parties can look past their differences and agree to work with each other.
“They have to occupy seats in the relevant legislature as per the votes that they have secured in the elections. Such coalition arrangements have to be based on consensus on policy positions and how to practically implement these so they reflect the will of the people. Given the constitutional requirements for parties elected into a legislature to form a coalition government within 14 days of the announcement of election results, the parties must make this happen,” said Dr Nadvi.
The ANC won six out of the nine provinces but glaringly lost KZN and Gauteng with no outright majority. The IEC’s final tally, nationally, following dealing with 500-plus objections: ANC (40.18%); DA as the main opposition party (21.81%); MK party (14.58%) and EFF (9.52%).
Within 14 days, the country’s new chief justice will ensure that the constitutionally-driven law of establishing a new parliament will take place – including the election of the president, vice-president, and swearing in of 400 MPs. Then it’s over to the election of Premiers and MPPS in the nine provinces, once the IEC officially hands over the lists to the secretary of parliament.
In the KZN legislature a coalition government has to have 40 plus 1 seats to govern. If the DA does not want to work with the MK and EFF it will have to pair with the IFP, ANC and NFP to make up the provincial government. This is of course also dependent on whether these other parties wish to work with the DA.
“The implications for people in KZN are that parties who are unable to work with each other need to account to the electorate who voted them into power. If a coalition government cannot be formed then new elections would have to be held. However, this does not appear to be an ideal scenario,” added Dr Nadvi.
An ANC-DA coalition will witness the return of the second White deputy president since the National Party’s FW De Klerk in 1994, alongside President Nelson Mandela and deputy president Thabo Mbeki. An interesting acid test will, however, play out in hotly-contested KwaZulu-Natal between the ousted ANC, high-performing MK, EFF, DA and IFP.
In his address to the nation, Federal Leader of the DA, John Steenhuisen said that collectively, the ANC, EFF and MK have the numbers to take power, while the Multi-Party Charter does not, which is “an outcome that the party did not want, but now has to deal with”.
“The DA’s Federal Executive has unanimously adopted a resolution to initiate exploratory talks with other political parties that share a commitment to the South African Constitution, to identify options for the formation of governments at national and provincial level where no party has obtained an outright majority. To facilitate this process, the federal executive has appointed a negotiating team composed of Helen Zille, Ivan Meyer, Siviwe Gwarube, Alan Winde, Tony Leon and Ryan Coetzee to facilitate the engagement with other parties,” he announced.
Meanwhile, the ANC confirmed that it will be holding a national executive committee (NEC) meeting to decide on the constitution of government this week.
“Our national working committee (NWC) and NEC meetings are on track as planned. The ANC, led by the secretary general, Fikile Mbalula, is consulting with the mass democratic movement, various interest groups, and other political parties to achieve national unity. The ANC dismisses any fake news attempts at dividing our NEC. We are strongly united and remain focused on using the mandate given to us by our people to build a better life for all,” said the national spokesperson for the ANC, Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri.
