DAVID CHRISTIANSON: Why coalition governments remain the future of SA

There is a clear dividing line in coalition politics — between those who are part of the solution and those who are part of the problem. Anyone watching the turmoil around the election of portfolio chairs in Johannesburg, and most recently the disruptive tactics deployed in Tshwane, could be forgiven for believing the problem parties are winning. But these are early days yet, and coalition governments remain the most viable solution to SA’s many problems.

The interface between most of SA’s municipalities and citizens has been a torrid space in recent years. It has been characterised by maladministration, political infighting, backdoor deals, corruption and poor service delivery. In 2021 the auditor-general could give clean audits to only 27 of the country’s 278 municipalities. She revealed that 160 of them were in financial distress and that the remedial measures suggested the previous year, “to prevent accountability failures” simply were not implemented.

However, while all may have seemed lost the 2021 municipal elections have seen the emergence in Gauteng of metropolitan coalitions between parties that appear to be able to put their differences aside and work towards solutions. Coalescing around the DA in Tshwane, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni, these parties are attempting to implement the mandate for better government granted by their voters. But some parties are not playing the game.

Johannesburg’s coalition is experiencing teething problems. Meetings to elect portfolio chairs have been disrupted by the ANC, EFF and smaller allies on at least two occasions, and on the flimsiest pretexts. On the first occasion the problem parties insisted that they wanted a secret ballot (which would allow unidentifiable defections). At the second attempt, the even thinner excuse was that there were no water bottles available in the council chamber (they were provided on a table outside). Clashes of principle were not at issue; this was simply the exercise of power to sabotage a democratic process.

At least three small parties — the Patriotic Alliance (PA), Al-Jama-ah and the IFP  — have shown an alarming tendency to flip-flop between support for the coalition and its main opponents. Behind this is an ANC that deeply fears the wider demonstration effect of successful coalition governments from which it is excluded.

Residents of Johannesburg need only look 40km to their north to see what is possible. The recent disruption of a council meeting by ANC members aside, in Tshwane the DA has formed a stable majority coalition with Action SA, the Freedom Front Plus, the ACDP, the UDM and COPE. It stands every chance of improving municipal government dramatically and offering a model for the future of the country. It is notable that none of these parties will contemplate coalition with the ANC. But the same cannot be said for the three small loose cannon parties in Johannesburg.

The PA has been described as a “transactional” party. In other words, it will ally itself with whichever entity promises it the biggest material reward. Its national leader, former self-admitted gangster and convicted armed robber Gayton McKenzie, has a long track record of defection for material gain. The PA, which has taken advantage of a startling outburst of “coloured” nationalism in Johannesburg’s southern suburbs in the past two years, initially supported the DA-led coalition, then defected after pressure from the ANC, but then completed a triple-cross back to the coalition after being offered the metropolitan finance portfolio. The party’s voters must by now be concerned about the PA’s willingness to implement the better governance mandate they granted it in 2021. 

The local IFP has also proved consistent only in its transactional pursuit of its own material interests. It controlled the lucrative transport portfolio in the Johannesburg Metro under Herman Mashaba’s mayorship and that of his ANC successor (2019-2021). It too has been a part of the recent process of sabotaging the election of portfolio chairs for the most threadbare reasons. The Johannesburg IFP is in effect a rebel franchise. The IFP leadership in Ulundi says it wants the DA-led coalition in Johannesburg to work effectively, but the party’s councillors in Johannesburg insist they have to work in harmony with the EFF or pay the price in KwaZulu-Natal at the next election.

Al-Jama-ah has defected from the coalition for the trumped-up reason that the DA mayor is “a supporter of Israel”. In fact, all parties in the coalition support a two-state resolution to the Palestine imbroglio. But the defection came after intervention from Al-Jama-ah’s Cape-based leadership, was supported by the ANC (members of which also wore traditional Palestinian keffiyehs during council meeting disruptions) and is part of a pattern of national offices intervening to prevent local representatives finding one another across party divides.

These three smaller parties have mandates to improve governance and thus service delivery to their constituents. Though the fine balance of the Johannesburg election results have given them the power to disrupt coalition negotiations, they show little sign of recognising the responsibility that comes with such a mandate. Nevertheless, it is worth persisting with coalition building in the city. The national ANC is greatly threatened. It sees its enemy not as any particular party but the prospect that it could lose a national election to a coalition of its opponents. In the 2021 municipal elections its overall support fell to 45%, albeit in a low turnout. In fact, fewer than one in 10 South Africans voted for what was once acclaimed as the party of liberation.

Those who want to be part of the solution know Johannesburg needs far-ranging remedial treatment. The infrastructure backlog is running at billions of rand, and the city’s inability to sort out its billing or planned maintenance systems has bedevilled both investment and the lives of its citizens for the last two decades. If Johannesburg can make its coalition work, it stands every chance of joining Pretoria as a model of what is possible at a national level after the 2024 general election.

• Christianson is a writer and consultant. He has worked as a local government specialist for the Development Bank of Southern Africa, among other organisations.