DA warns ‘coalitions of corruption’ will plunge cities into more chaos

The DA has called for a legislative framework to secure the stability of coalitions, saying the lack thereof has contributed to metro governance and service delivery failures. 

Party chief whip Siviwe Gwarube said the instability was caused by coalitions bound by “gentlemen’s agreements” and not good governance principles. 

“The systemic service delivery issues, water shortages and infrastructure maintenance have been caused and exacerbated with the coming to power of the ANC-EFF coalitions. Unless residents of the metropolitan areas are rescued from the coalitions of corruption, we will see the cities plunge into even more chaos.” 

The party believes it has a solution to the governance crisis with the introduction of two bills in a trilogy of coalition legislative proposals to regulate coalitions in local governance. 

Gwarube said the first step was to extend the Electoral Commission of SA deadline to form a coalition, saying the stipulated fortnight is not enough time to facilitate political party negotiations. 

“We need to extend the time limit to appoint mayors and speakers from 14 days to 30 days to allow coalition partners more time to properly negotiate a successful coalition.” 

The party also believes there should be an electoral threshold to ring-fence the parties that can qualify for seats in council by requiring they obtain a certain number of votes. 

“We are careful not to prescribe what the threshold should be because we want to make sure political parties in the National Assembly can deliberate this. We also don’t want to alienate parties before this matter comes to parliament. We are happy to negotiate for a threshold that will ensure some kind of stability if we were to have a national coalition government.” 

However, the party insisted at a local level the threshold must meet the initial seat quota and must be strictly enforced. 

“The DA has a plan to ensure the parties who do not enjoy the confidence and support of the people are not the ones being kingmakers over major metros. 

“Political instability is at the heart of the service delivery crisis and we cannot allow the doomsday coalitions and smaller parties to hold cities to ransom to receive powerful and lucrative positions.” 

The DA also proposed the number of no-confidence motions that can be brought against a mayor or speaker should be limited to once per 12-month period and subject to certain exceptions thereafter. 

“We will introduce the final two private member’s bills of the trilogy of coalition bills in parliament and call on all parties to support them when they come to the house for a vote. They must be passed before the May elections to prepare the country for possible provincial and national coalition governments,” Gwarube said. 

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