Patriotic Alliance willing to support Mashaba to be Joburg mayor

Patriotic Alliance (PA) leader Gayton McKenzie says his party is willing to support ActionSA’s Herman Mashaba in the race to become Johannesburg mayor.

By Wednesday afternoon, the PA had gained four wards in Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni – two wards in Eldorado Park, one in Reitger Park and another in Thokoza.

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The party has also won wards in the Western Cape.

The Patriotic Alliance (PA) says it is willing to hold coalition talks with any party that agrees to its terms.

While campaigning for the local government elections, the PA and ActionSA both promised to take action against undocumented immigrants if they were elected.

“Mashaba is lucky because I would strongly consider going into a coalition with him, because he is very clear about his stance on foreigners. In fact, if you look at all the parties, we are the closest to ActionSA in terms of the coalition and we don’t have a problem to support him or for him to support us… if he supports us in Ekurhuleni we will support him to be mayor of Joburg,” said McKenzie in an interview with SABC on Wednesday.

“In the City of Joburg, Mashaba is not a kingmaker. We are the kingmakers in Joburg and in Ekurhuleni. No government will be formed without us.”

He, however, said his party would talk to the ANC and the DA before making any coalition agreements.

The PA was previously in a coalition with the ANC in the City of Johannesburg but those ties were severed after the parties had a fallout. PA leader Gayton McKenzie, however, says he’s willing to renegotiate.

“We will go into a coalition with the ANC, we will go into a coalition with the DA… we’d even go into a coalition with the AWB (Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging) if it still existed, as long as they agree with what we want,” McKenzie told the SABC.

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Earlier on Wednesday, Mashaba said he was approached by one of the ANC’s top six leaders about a possible coalition. Mashaba, however, said ActionSA has no intention of entering into a coalition with the ruling party.

ActionSA has got the third-highest number of votes in the City of Johannesburg.

The DA is also saying that it will only form coalitions with parties that match its criteria. It says it would rather take an opposition role than govern with another party it can’t find common ground with.

The DA has sent draft agreement documents to various political parties laying out what they will and won’t accept as part of a coalition in metros across the country.

Additional reporting by Simnikiwe Hlatshaneni and Rorisang Kgosana