A meeting of seven political parties aimed at taking over the hung Tshwane and Joburg metros in a coalition stalled yesterday resulting in a call for the postponement of Thursday's inaugural council meeting.
Tshwane and Ekurhuleni are scheduled to have their first council meetings on Thursday in which a mayor and a speaker of council are expected to be elected.
The DA met yesterday afternoon with ActionSA, the ACDP, IFP, Freedom Front Plus and UDM in an effort to wrap up coalition agreements in the sought-after Gauteng metros that would take them away from the ANC, which is the leading party in both.
The parties are now calling for a postponement of the council meeting in Tshwane after failing to reach an agreement on how they would govern the capital.
Johannesburg's council meeting had already been postponed to November 22 and 23 at 10am, due to Rand Water's current three-day water shutdown.
ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba said parties had not yet reached an agreement “because of different demands” and they would reconvene. Mashaba, however, refused to divulge the demands.
“Because the City of Tshwane’s council meeting is scheduled on Thursday, we might not be able to meet in a day or so and we’ve agreed to write to the city manager of Tshwane to move the meeting to early next week,” Mashaba said.
“Unfortunately, without us, the meeting won’t quorate and no-one will be able to form a government... There’s no point in meeting when the meeting won’t succeed.”
ACDP president Rev Kenneth Meshoe told Sowetan that the meeting “stalled” when the Patriotic Alliance, which has eight seats in Johannesburg and one in Tshwane, demanded to be guaranteed MMC posts in both metros as a precondition for its participation.
“While all of us were focusing on the agreement, the Patriotic Alliance [PA] wanted to be guaranteed MMC seats in the two metros. I personally think that demand will delay us,” Meshoe said yesterday.
He said some parties, including the ACDP, felt that the PA “had put the cart before the horse” in the talks.
“I don't think this will be an easy issue to jump over,” Meshoe said.
DA federal chairperson Helen Zille said: “This is an extremely crucial week and we are bringing to the negotiating table our years of experience of being in coalitions, some of which worked and some of which did not.”
Zille said the DA was not seeking to be in power at all costs.
Freedom Front Plus head of elections Wouter Wessels said they had expected to have a joint press conference today to announce agreements reached on governing Joburg and Tshwane.
While discussions were ongoing, some of the smaller parties whose seats could sway the metros either way have already reached agreements with bigger parties in other Gauteng metros.
Al Jama-ah president Ganief Hendricks said his party, with three seats in Ekurhuleni, had reached a co-governance agreement with the ANC for the City of Johannesburg.
African Independent Congress (AIC) secretary-general Mahlubandile Jafta said his party, represented in all three major metros in Gauteng, had received a call from the ANC showing interest in forming some kind of alliance. He said this was the case in KwaZulu-Natal and Rustenburg.
An ANC national executive committee member who asked not to be named said they were “still engaging different parties”.
“Each and every municipality has its own dynamics and the parties are not the same but in Joburg the [Herman] Mashaba thing [him being mayor in a coalition that includes the ANC] is out,” he said.
The member said it would be unwise for any big party, including the DA, to accede to the demand that Mashaba become mayor.
“There would be years of instability. It can't be easy for a majority party with so many seats like the ANC has in Johannesburg to hand over power in the metro,” the member said.
In Nelson Mandela Bay, Sowetan understands the ANC has reached an agreement with the EFF after offering it the position of speaker and chief whip.
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