The leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA), John Steenhusen, says the instability in the Johannesburg Metro coalition government has the potential to cast serious doubt on any formidable coalition government at national and provincial level in the future.
He was speaking on the sidelines of the Multi-Party Charter’s meeting with civil society organisations in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg, on Tuesday.
Steenhuisen and seven other Charter leaders were listening to community organisations on what needs to be done to unseat the African National Congress (ANC) in the 2024 national elections.
Coalition governments are necessitated by the failure of political parties to garner enough votes to constitute a government alone.
Since the 2021 local elections, all parties failed to muster enough numbers to lead the City of Johannesburg. However, the City has been fraught with one unstable government after the other.
In exactly two years, the country’s economic heartland has had four Executive Mayors and three Speakers, all from different coalition governments. Steenhuisen says if the chaos in Johannesburg is anything to go by, it will be difficult for them to sell the idea of coalition governments at national and provincial levels after the 2024 elections.
“We don’t think there is a path to a stable coalition in Johannesburg and that we will just be going into the merry-go-round of instability. We believe that an unstable coalition going into provincial and national elections next year would do great damage to be the ability for us to be able to sell coalition governments a stable way to bring about services and a change in life for people. We remain committed to talking about Johannesburg but until there is a path towards a stable coalition we will maintain a position that there needs to be a dissolution of the Johannesburg council this is what happens in democracies around the world where stable government is not able to be formed.”
🤝 Today, the Multi-Party Charter is hosting an enlightening engagement with Civil Society Organisations.
This engagement aims to gain collaborative insights that would drive political change in South Africa and foster a transparent, consultative coalition government. pic.twitter.com/cqF0POlfBi
— Democratic Alliance (@Our_DA) November 28, 2023
And, if all fail to rescue the African World Class City from the never-ending chaotic and unstable coalition governments, the Freedom Front Plus is amenable to have Johannesburg residents having all three spheres of government in one day next year as party leader Pieter Groenewald explains.
“We must explore the possibility that on election day, the IEC is looking at the 22 of May, it is not impossible, it is not against the law to have at that specific area also municipal part of that elections so that the electorates in Johannesburg Metro can vote in the same day also for the municipality. If that cannot happen then at least the result will give us an indication of how the people of the Metro are thinking because each and every vote is counted.”
Meanwhile, the parties in the Multi-Party Charter are unyielding on their course to have the governing ANC out of power in the 2024 elections. ACDP Deputy leader, Wayne Thring, says the country cannot afford another five years of ANC misrule.
“The ACDP recognises the need for like-minded South Africans to come together to prevent South Africa from falling into the abyss because the evidence that is presented to us towards a failed state is overwhelming. South Africa and its economy simply cannot endure 30 years of misrule, in fact, another five years would be too ghastly to contemplate, we simply don’t have the luxury of time and therefore it is in this context that the role of civil society is so crucial.”
IFP leader Velenkosini Hlabisa, on the other hand, says the 2024 elections will be the moment of change.
“It is quite clearly up to us to change the players in the game of governance so that our economy can be resuscitated. We bring to the Charter a valuable facet, the IFP legacy of honest leadership.”
But some civil society organisations are not chaffed. “We listened very carefully to all the leaders but it falls pathetically short of the issues related to the Khoi and San, they generalise the issue of unemployment and crime but not one of them has said anything to the Khoi and San who are the original owners of this land,” says Paramount Chief Richard is from the Khoi and San community.
