COALITION TESTING
Can a national coalition work?
Despite the turmoil caused by differences inevitable in any coalition, the opposition-led municipalities and metros have managed to pass their budgets — even if smaller parties say the DA is arrogant
On August 17 2016 Mmusi Maimane sat triumphantly in the Radisson Blu Hotel in Sandton following days of fervent horse-trading to form local governments in three metros where the ANC had failed to win a majority. Not far away, at the Setswetla informal settlement in Alexandra, EFF leader Julius Malema had earlier said his party would not be part of any coalition government. He made it clear the EFF’s choice was between two devils, but it would vote to keep the ANC out of power.Days later the ANC officially stepped down from power in Johannesburg, Tshwane, Nelson Mandela Bay and other municipalities where it could not get parties to work with it to retain power.Maimane announced at a briefing following the DA mayors’ first year in office that "after only a single year of DA governance, the city (Nelson Mandela Bay) rose from being the second-lowest trusted metro in the country, to second highest – a real vote of confidence in Mayor (Athol) Trollip and his government." It will, however...
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