Only an ANC-EFF alliance can work to form a stable government

Who can the Democratic Alliance (DA) work with to form a coalition government after next year’s elections if there’s no majority party?

This seems to be the question on the mind of re-elected Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen, who has publicly declared the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) as his number one enemy.

The DA should instead declare poverty, unemployment and inequality as its number one enemy if it wants to win over EFF and ANC voters. As much as the DA can be optimistic about unseating the ANC from power, they know that they are faced with an almost impossible task.

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What they can hope to achieve might be to make the ANC fall below the 50% plus one threshold required for them to govern the country. The opposition party can rally the small parties to their side to form a coalition that has Steenhuisen as president of South Africa.

But, unfortunately for them, they can only do so with the support of the EFF – and it is public knowledge DA federal council chair Helen Zille and EFF leader Julius Malema don’t see eye-to-eye. This makes it unlikely for these two parties with their different ideologies and policies, to join forces.

Without debate, a coalition government that includes the DA and EFF is doomed and will not even get considered. So, with this DA-EFF scenario unlikely to happen, Steenhuisen feels threatened by the EFF and understands his dream to be in government can only be shattered by the red berets if the ANC fails to secure the majority vote.

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Grasping the fact that the EFF will play a crucial role in South African politics if the 2024 elections don’t provide a majority party, the DA leader has tasked himself to eliminating the EFF threat. This is because Steenhuisen understands there are better chances for the ANC and EFF to shake hands and form a coalition government.

Many would have expected Steenhuisen to declare the ANC as his number one enemy, since it is the governing party. But understanding that politics is a game of numbers, he sees it fit that they co-govern with the ANC, rather than the EFF.

This just clearly shows that DA is power-hungry and would even partner with the party that they are saying they want to unseat, come 2024.

Now they think this strategy of decampaigning the EFF will be the reason the EFF gets sidelined in government coalition talks. But they really don’t know that they are in for the biggest shock of their life if the chaotic local government coalitions are anything to go by.

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Both the ANC and EFF are in a situation that if they have to choose a political party to form a government with, they would choose each other.

The DA and the ANC are ideologically apart and the policy direction within these two parties is not the same. Therefore, this makes it very hard for them to join forces with one another.

But on the other hand, the ANC and EFF are ideologically on the same track and their constituency is one. This is clearly setting the foundation for the two parties to find a ground with one another.

And Steenhuisen is strongly troubled by this. He knows that if the DA isn’t forced to work with the ANC, the EFF will jump at that opportunity. But without bursting Steenhuisen’s bubble to be part of a national coalition government, an ANC-DA government will be an administration that lacks progress because their visions and constituencies are different.

Only the ANC and EFF can form a coalition government that can be more stable. There won’t be an international relations disaster such as a political position on the Russia-Ukraine war – and there won’t be differing views on the agenda of land redistribution.