SA elections 2024: Maimane says he’s been approached as coalition talks kick off

Political parties have begun initial conversations about coalitions as the votes counted nears 100% on the elections results leaderboard on Saturday morning.

Speaking at the IEC’s national results operations centre in Midrand, Build One SA (Bosa) leader Mmusi Maimane said he has already been contacted to discuss a possible consolidation of power. He did not want to name the politician who contacted him.

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Many scenarios for coalitions after elections

Maimane said it is obvious that South Africa is heading towards a national coalition, but there are many scenarios of how that could look like.

“First one is the ANC with a conglomeration of parties. I’m not certain that is sustainable given some of the challenges we could face about that. There is an ANC-IFP conversation, which may suit KZN. There is an ANC-DA conversation and there is a [possible] ANC-MK coalition,” he said.

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Maimane said he believes coalitions should be negotiated with an approach to put ethical leaders in power and provide effective governance.

“Even if it was a conversation with the ANC, it could not have been premised of people who were listed on the state capture commission. For me if you want to clean up the state you have to do a proper job now.”

Maimane said he is hoping for several seats in parliament and is also keeping an eye on seats at the Gauteng legislature.

SA politics becoming polarised

The former DA leader said he was concerned about South African politics becoming polarised around tribal affiliation. He was speaking in a veiled manner about the strong performance of the MK party in KwaZulu-Natal, where former president Jacob Zuma is from.

“Its not unique to MK. My view is that the danger that society faces is that you could end up with the danger of the Freedom Front Plus being an Afrikaans party, the PA being a coloured party, the DA being a white party. Once we go down that road we are going to end up as a society that is fragmented,” he said.

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