President Cyril Ramaphosa addresses a large crowd at Mfuleni during the African National Congress (ANC) election campaign on October 21, 2021 in Cape Town, South Africa. Picture: Gallo Images/Brenton Geach
With the 2021 municipal elections set to take place on 1 November, African National Congress (ANC) president Cyril Ramaphosa has shut down the possibility of the ruling party entering into a multiparty coalition.
Speaking to the media in Ivory Park on Saturday, Ramaphosa said the ruling party was ready for the upcoming local government elections on Monday.
“I am confident. We are going to surprise many people who thought the ANC was on its knees, the ANC will not mount a successful campaign and we have mounted a really successful campaign,” he said.
The ANC president said he was confident that the party will win an outright majority without going into a coalition.
“Well firstly on the outcome of the elections I am not thinking about any form of a deal or coalition.
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“The ANC is going to win outright, that’s how positive I am. Coalition doesn’t exist in my vocabulary. Outright victory is what exists in my vocabulary,” he continued to say.
He further called on citizens exercise their democratic right to vote.
“As much as I am wearing the yellow t-shirt on behalf of the ANC, I am calling on all South Africans, which ever party they support, that they must go out in millions to vote. This is our civic duty and it is our constitutional right,” Ramaphosa added.
Meanwhile, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) on Tuesday revealed that it will proclaim and announce the election results on Thursday, 4 November.
Coalition governments have been bashed for ringing in further chaos at major metros and municipalities with constant floor-crossing and power battles delaying the cause of proper service delivery.
However, Ekurhuleni mayor and ANC member Mzwandile Masina believes that coalition governments are an inevitable reality for South Africa’s political future.
Speaking at the launch of his new book: Future Realities of Coalitions in South Africa, Masina said that the ANC, along with other parties, needed to accept the idea of coalitions accept sooner rather than later.
“Coalitions are seemingly an inevitable reality in South Africa and other parts of the developing world. The diverse views from the population do not allow the continuation of a one party domination system.
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“So, therefore we need to start to think about how best do we advance some of the policies that have been part of our movement broadly,” the Ekurhuleni mayor said.
While coalitions are unavoidable, Masina indicated that there needed to be a clear framework in place on how the sharing of power between parties would work in SA.
“In South Africa, we have not yet began to develop a blueprint on how we should construct coalition governments… We do need to start thinking about this phenomenon and how best we can be able to assist the country to ensure that we don’t have failing [municipal] governments in our country,” he said.
Additional reporting by Thapelo Lekabe
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