DA would have done better to walk away, says expert

It wasn’t a watershed election; instead a brilliant strategic move by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) pushed out the ANC and handed the Democratic Alliance (DA) Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni.

They were two of the most hotly contested and hung councils in this month’s municipal elections.

Both cities now sport a DA speaker and executive mayor but will the EFF pull the strings in the background?

Former DA deputy executive director and political commentator Russel Crystal said: “The DA is not the king, it is the court jester and will have to perform to the will of the EFF now, or face the same fate that it did in 2016’s disastrous councils in Joburg and Nelson Mandela Bay.”

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This, he said, was a worse fate for the party than merely being an effective opposition again.

“They may not have asked for it and were opposed to it, but the DA has submitted themselves to the EFF and it’s a sad situation when a liberal organisation consciously submits to South Africa’s Stalinists.”

Dr Mpho Phalatse and Tania Campbell emerged as executive mayors of Joburg and Ekurhuleni respectively, burdened with the task of managing minority governments.

Campbell replaced previous DA mayoral candidate Refiloe Nt’sekhe, who withdrew her candidacy on 8 November, preferring to protect the interests of the metro on a provincial level as a member of the provincial legislature.

Crystal criticised the DA on Facebook on Tuesday: “John Steenhuisen and Helen Zille have, ad nauseam, stated that in Johannesburg they won’t take part in a Mashaba minority government because that will be dependent on the EFF and therefore unstable.”

Now, it seems, it’s not ActionSA in that position, but the DA in both metros. As recently as Monday, the DA said it would not enter coalitions with the ANC or the EFF, but the red berets decided to vote the party into the executive anyway.

ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba withdrew his candidacy after failed coalition negotiations in Johannesburg.

In a statement, Mashaba said: “ActionSA will not play Russian roulette with the lives of the residents … who have trusted political parties to keep the ANC out of government.”

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Crystal said the DA should rather have supported ActionSA, which would have kept the ANC out and shielded the DA from dancing to EFF leader Julius Malema’s tune.

“In Ekurhuleni, they should have fortified their position as an effective opposition.”

But both mayors speak with calm confidence about the future and are keen to get to work. Campbell said: “The EFF’s support was unexpected.”

But prior to voting, the EFF caucus was addressed by the party’s deputy president, Floyd Shivambu, behind closed doors.

Campbell added the parties were yet to meet and seek a way forward.

“Right now, my task is to form a mayoral committee and get the new executive to work, and to rapidly show every voter in Ekurhuleni that we can and will make a big difference.”

Phalatse said her priorities included assembling the executive and getting to work “to either fix a mess or to build on good initiatives,”