Coalitions on the cards in three Gauteng metros

Gauteng's trio jewel metros look set to be governed by coalition governments again if early election results are anything to go by. 

This became evident on Tuesday as major political parties – the ANC and the DA – started fielding questions from journalists on their approach to coalition negotiations and likely horse trading.

With no single party recording more than 50%  in the coveted metros by last night, the EFF, ActionSA and Freedom Front Plus emerged as possible king makers

The ANC's coalition options in Gauteng, however, appear to be limited as ActionSA's Herman Mashaba and the Freedom Front Plus have already expressed their unwillingness to work with the ruling party.

Around 6pm, early results showed that in Ekurhuleni, where the ANC governed through a coalition, the party stood at around 36%, with the DA hot on its heels with 30.8% and the EFF on 13.2%. The AIC, which helped the ANC get the 50 plus majority, was lagging far behind with 1.3%.

The ANC retained control of Ekurhuleni through a coalition with the AIC and other smaller parties after securing 49% in 2016.

But political analyst Ralph Mathekga said he expects the ANC to do better in Ekurhuleni.

“Ekurhuleni is far better metro for the ANC compared to the others like Tshwane and the City of Johannesburg where it (ANC) had to form coalition government with other parties to retain power,” Mathekga said.

“Tshwane and Joburg are out for grabs for any party and these are the areas where ANC has faced disaster after disaster. I don’t see them lose their power in Ekurhuleni.”

In Tshwane, where the ANC had spent the last term in opposition benches, the DA led with a comfortable 40.8% of votes as of 6pm vote counting.

The ANC lagged behind with 28.1%, with the Freedom Front Plus amassing 10%. This meant if the picture didn't change, the DA would need just the Freedom Front Plus to form a government in the capital.

In Johannesburg, the ANC had maintained its precarious lead at 34.21%, followed by the DA at 25.9% while ActionSA stood at 17.54%.

Among the ANC coalition partners whose votes had been factored, the IFP stood at 2.11% and Aljama 0.79%, which made them unlikely to reach above 50% if swing districts did not change the pattern.

While more votes were expected to be tallied with possible changes expected, the ANC and its coalition partners it led the City of Joburg with – the AIC, IFP, COPE, Aljama and UDM – had a combined support that was still below 50%.

The ANC's extended national working committee will on Friday meet to among others discuss the party's approach to coalitions, especially in the metros which look most likely not to produce a clear winner.

ANC's deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte said they will not be leaving the decisions around coalitions on their regional structures. “We have a team that’s led by Jeff Radebe, and the team will include provincial secretaries but the decision on who are we going into coalitions with will be made at a national level,” Duarte said.

Duarte said Luthuli House also wanted “to have a sight of all the discussions that take place”.

“We don’t want people to make deals that we don’t know, so this will be very transparent from the ANC’s point of view,” she said.

Mashaba reiterated that his party was open to coalition talks with all political parties as long it was not the ANC, as he still wanted to see the governing party out of power.

“The ANC is out of the question. It is, however, not like that when it comes to other parties; we will just go into a relationship with them. It will depend if they approach us to see what's on offer, in particular the DA,” he said.

Mashaba said he remained sceptical of the DA as he felt it was against the poor. “We will work with the DA if they commit that we are going to serve all the communities and operate like they operate in the Western Cape,” he said.

EFF treasurer-general Omphile Maotwe said the party had not yet decided who it would join forces with as it awaited the final results.

DA leader John Steenhuisen said that they will work with all coalition partners, except the EFF, while indicating that it will be difficult to work with the ANC, even though the DA was open for talks.

The Gauteng metros are significant as Joburg is the country's economic hub which has the largest budget, while Tshwane is the capital city and Ekurhuleni is a key industrial and manufacturing hub.

Wouter Wessels, Freedom Front Plus' national head of elections, said imposing the ANC on those who stayed away or voted for other parties would not be fair. – Additional reporting by Lindile Sifile.