If political parties refuse to get into coalitions, you’re the one who will pay for it

Political parties’ vehement refusals to enter into coalitions are mostly hot air, since failures to compromise and break the stalemates – which are likely to result in several municipalities stalling – are bound to have a severe impact on residents.

With 66 hung municipalities following last week’s local government elections, parties including the DA, EFF, ANC, and ActionSA have all said they’re not desperate for coalitions, and should parties not meet their values and standards, they will sit in opposition benches.

None of the country’s bigger parties appear willing to work with the ANC, which – despite getting way below the required 50% outright majorities in many municipalities – had acquired most of the votes overall.

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While municipalities have 14 days since the declaration of the results to constitute a government, should political parties stand their ground on a no-coalition stance, there will be no government, said senior lecturer of public administration at University of Mpumalanga John Molepo.

“It will impact a lot of residents, like the passing of budgets and approval of service deliveries. It will put the municipality in autopilot. This refusal of coalition is not putting the interest of the residents at heart. If they don’t form a coalition, the residents are going to suffer. Coalitions have to be formed to deliver services. The parties shouldn’t look at their own politics but look at forming government in the interests of the people,” he said.

Following the election results on Thursday, parties have been sitting in internal meetings to engage on the way forward. This includes the ANC, who met in Tshwane at the weekend and ActionSA, who have won 16% of Johannesburg’s votes. ActionSA is also expected to announce the outcomes of its coalition talks today.

Meanwhile, EFF leader Julius Malema said they were only willing to work with those who followed their policy on land expropriation without compensation. But political analyst Andre Duvenhage believed it was unlikely the ANC would go that route as it was against their reform approach.

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“It is in conflict with everything the economy needs. It’s a disaster from hell. The other scenario is that you bring together all opposition parties and establish a minority government, but you have an unstable type of environment like we saw in the Nelson Mandela Bay and Tshwane.”

“But not a single party wants to work with the ANC. Then it is a stalemate and local government can’t take decisions and it’s a recipe for chaos. Somewhere, someone must compromise,” said Duvenhage.

However, these are all bluffs, threats, and parties putting on a show like they did in the 2016 local government elections when 27 councils were hung, say analysts.

“In [2016], there were threats of not having coalitions but at the end, they formed a coalition agreement… At the end of the day, the MEC of cooperative governance and traditional affairs might intervene,” said Molepo.

Should parties compromise, it might take time and come with difficulties, said Duvenhage, who described the current political climate as the “tipping point in politics”.

But this is an indication of a maturing democracy, said Molepo.

“A decade ago, we wouldn’t have such things happening and now we have coalitions. It means democracy in South Africa is maturing and political parties must ensure when the democracy matures, they need to think of the interests of the people,” said Molepo.

rorisangk@citizen.co.za