Coalition ructions part of democratic process - Sunday Independent

Marius Roodt

Coalitions used to be something of a rarity in South African politics, but – especially since the 2016 local government elections (LGE) – have become fairly common. About a quarter of South African municipalities are governed by coalitions, including five of the eight metros. And polling – and other data around political party support, such as by-election results – shows that the popularity of the ANC continues to slip and that South Africa as a whole, and a number of provinces, could be governed by coalitions after next year’s election.

However, coalitions seem increasingly to qualify as a by-word for chaos. We have seen councillors from tiny parties elected to the position of mayor in both Johannesburg and Tshwane. It seems that often the needs of residents are second to the whims of political parties.

But there are two lessons to be gained from the recent ructions in Johannesburg and Tshwane (with Ekurhuleni also likely to see a new mayor soon), one positive and one negative.

The first (positive) lesson is that these ructions in coalitions are part of South Africa’s democratic growing pains. In many ways the country is now going through a transition not unlike the one it went through in the early 1990s, when the country moved from minority rule to being a non-racial democracy.

The current transition is one where the country is moving from being a democracy dominated by one hegemonic party to one where there is a multiplicity of parties and electoral outcomes are not a foregone conclusion. 

This is a common stage in the development of democracies around the world and is nothing to be afraid of. In this turbulent period we will see events such as those in Tshwane and Johannesburg, where coalitions are precarious and city executives change seemingly every few months.

This is, unfortunately, a necessary stage in our democratic development. Parties need to learn how to co-operate with coalition partners, and this sparring is part of this phase.

At the same time, during this period parties will determine who their natural coalition partners are, whether their choice of allies should be based on certain goals rather than ideological compatibility, or whether they would rather remain outside of formal coalitions.

When it comes to coalition politics Germany is a place that South Africa can learn from and again, that country provides us with an example of the above. Since the end of World War II, politics in West Germany (and later reunified Germany) was dominated by the centre-right Christian Democrats on one hand, and the centre-left Social Democrats on the other. Two smaller parties have also been part of governing coalitions – the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats. The Free Democrats have supported both the Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats in national governing coalitions. By contrast, the Greens have generally only worked with the Social Democrats. Currently the governing coalition in Germany is led by the Social Democrats, supported by the Greens and the Free Democrats.

Political parties in South Africa will also start finding these types of roles for themselves and the current relative chaos is part of how parties find what role suits them best.

However, the negative aspect of the current chaos is that it is clear that the ANC and its allies which have voted out DA mayors in Johannesburg and Tshwane (and soon Ekurhuleni) have little interest in tackling the problems residents face in these municipalities.

If the ANC and its allies, such as the EFF and the PA, were truly interested in the welfare of the residents of these cities, they would not have supported mayoral candidates from micro parties in Johannesburg and Tshwane. Thapelo Amad from Al Jama-Ah is the current mayor of Johannesburg while Murunwa Makwarela of COPE is the mayor of Tshwane (Al Jama-ah won 1% of the vote in Johannesburg while COPE secured 0.2% in Tshwane).

Instead, had the welfare of residents been the parties’ main concern, they would have proposed competent technocrats as their mayoral candidates to tackle the problems in those places. And the ANC has shown that it can appoint such people – Parks Tau was the mayor of Johannesburg from 2011 and 2016 and was one of the party’s more capable deployees. He was voted out as mayor in 2016 but was collateral damage as anti-ANC sentiment swept the country, especially the metros in that year. Rather the ANC has supported candidates from tiny parties who are clearly simply there to do the bidding of the ANC, the EFF, and their partners, rather than do what is best for residents.

Voting for compromise candidates from micro parties could also mean that the ANC and EFF have decided that rather than fighting over positions, they will support a candidate who leaves them free to access tenders and resources and lets them feast undisturbed on the municipal carcass.

South African voters, however, have shown themselves increasingly willing to punish political parties at the polls. This latest move by the ANC and the EFF, which has shown their absolute disregard for voters, could backfire badly for the two them, particularly in Gauteng. Time will tell.

Marius Roodt is a writer and senior analyst at the Institute of Race Relations