DA and ActionSA both need to mature to prevent coalition madness

When Mpho Phalatse went to court to reverse the vote of no confidence that removed her and installed the ANC’s Dada Morero as mayor of the City of Joburg, the Democratic Alliance (DA) knew way back then that the writing was on the wall for their mayor’s term in office.

The court reversed the no-confidence vote because of a technicality, not because the numbers didn’t tally. And last week, Phalatse was finally removed in a way that even the courts would agree with.

A question some commentators ask is: what did the DA do in fighting to keep Phalatse in power after she was reinstated? Her party had almost three months to do something to give the residents of Joburg some semblance of stability.

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The DA is not the only party that owes the city stability. The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), ANC, Patriotic Alliance (PA), Al Jama-ah and ActionSA all owe the voters stability and the service delivery that they voted for.

It has been over a year since the 2021 local government elections and it should be clear to any politician or party worth their salt that principled stands benefit no one in coalitions. Does this mean that in the search for stability in government, expediency trumps principle? Far from it.

The only problem with the principled stands the DA and ActionSA have taken have led to the exactly the opposite of what they want to achieve: putting the ANC back in power. There is nothing special the DA mayor did when she was in office to justify why she necessarily needed to stay in office.

But the residents of Johannesburg have seen more than two decades of ANC rule and there would really be no harm in trying a new broom to sweep up the mess that is the City of Joburg.

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And the DA and ActionSA have stuck to the principle that they hate the ANC so much that they cannot compromise and go into a coalition with a “lesser evil” simply to keep the ANC out, and see what a different administration can do for the city’s fortunes in this five-year period.

Herman Mashaba’s ActionSA has been at pains to point out that it has been wronged by the DA and the DA is pointing a finger back at Mashaba. While they’re busy apportioning blame, the PA and the other smaller parties decided the grass is greener on the ANC side of the fence rather than on the DA’s blue side.

And they did not waste time in going across to get their representatives some positions in what is essentially an ANC-EFF coalition government agreement in municipal governments across Gauteng for now.

The DA and ActionSA will wait until their parties get sole electoral mandates to govern the city and bring much-needed change. Unless they both mature and realise that a slice of government with someone you don’t want is better than being on the outside looking in, they will remain in the opposition benches for the next decade.

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The instability that is about to rock Gauteng metros as the EFF and ANC get into bed together should be warning enough to the rest of the opposition about what could happen in next year’s general election.

The lesson to both DA and ActionSA must be that it will not be enough to keep the ANC under 50% to achieve a change in government. It will require working with people who are not their ideological friends.

And therein lies political maturity: the ability to sacrifice principles for expedience, if it allows a party to fulfil part of their electoral mandate.