As the ANC suffered yet another crushing blow with the loss of power in one of the three metros it governs, acting party secretary-general Paul Mashatile described this as a sign of things to come.
On Thursday the DA entered into a coalition agreement with the ANC’s former coalition partners the AIC, Abantu Integrity Movement (AIM), PAC and UDM in Nelson Mandela Bay, effectively ending the ANC's eight-month rule since November's local government elections.
The new coalition will need to petition the speaker of council to convene a special council meeting and remove the ANC's mayor Eugene Johnson through a vote of no confidence.
The developments come as the ANC holds its policy conference in Nasrec in the south of Johannesburg to thrash out policy proposals ahead of its elective conference in December. During this weekend's discussions, the party will reflect on its losses in municipal elections, which saw the ANC lose power in major metros.
The party's discussion document under opposition and electoral politics sought to downplay its loss of power describing coalitions as having “less in common than a crowd of drunkards in a beer hall”.
Mashatile, who is the party's treasurer-general, told Sowetan it was expected that opposition parties will gang up against the ANC where they can. He said the party's approach is to also be able to work with those that have a common agenda.
“We know we’re in a situation where coalition politics are a reality. Very few parties can win outright majority. We won’t dismiss all smaller parties because in Gauteng most smaller parties are working with us,” he said.
“We’re pursuing that agenda and unfortunately the reality of our time is we’ve been thrown into coalition politics and we need to prepare for that.”
Mashatile said there was an agenda to “dislodge” the ANC from power.
“People [political parties] are not coming together for the sake of delivering better services for residents but rather dislodging the ANC and want power for themselves and it’s about what’s in it for them.
“People want power and if they see an opportunity to push us out of power they’ll do so. It’s up to us to master partnership politics,” Mashatile said.
The loss of power in Nelson Mandela Bay means the ANC is now only in charge of two metros — eThekwini in KwaZulu-Natal and Buffalo City in the Eastern Cape — out of seven nationally.
The party's discussion document noted it had been kept out of government by the growing phenomenon of small opposition parties ganging up to keep the ANC out of office.
“These coalitions, which have less in common than a crowd of drunkards in a beer hall, are on a crusade to obliterate the defining goals of our national transformation project. Otherwise, they would not all declare the demise of the ANC as the only primary reason they exist.
“Their self-realisation in the palaces they now occupy under the pretext of fighting corruption has more to do with their careerism, wheeling and dealing, and patronage.”
Asked about the crass language used in the document to describe smaller parties, Mashatile said party members had different language styles when writing.
“Remember the Umrabulo document is a discussion document and we have different people with different styles of writing coming from different provinces. When we have a formal policy position you won’t see that kind of language and proper language will be used.”
The ANC has been on a downward electoral trajectory since the 2004 general elections where the party received 69.69% of the vote, dropping to 65.9% in 2009 and to 62.1% in 2014.
During the 2019 general elections the ANC received 57.5% at the polls and this was during the height of Cyril Ramaphosa's popularity with the voting majority.
In NMB the newly formed coalition has a combined 56 seats out of a council of 120.
The new agreement also includes the ACDP and FF Plus.
Parties such as Defenders of the People (DOP) Northern Alliance (NA) and Good do not form part of the new agreement, which means the ANC-led coalition is tied with the new alliance with 56 seats.
A bone of contention in NMB has been the appointment of a city manager with opposition parties pushing for their own candidates. The matter ended up in court.
ANC Eastern Cape provincial chairperson Oscar Mabuyane said the outcome did not come as a surprise.
“From the start it was a coalition government and it was clear we’re not in control in that space. Even one small party can be a majority party. But also a day is too long in a coalition government.”
Mabuyane said the ANC was open to engagement, adding he did not view it as a loss because the party had failed to win by an outright majority during the 2021 elections.
He also attributed Thursday’s outcome to the ANC being too occupied with keeping its coalition partners happy rather than focusing on service delivery.
“The ANC in the Eastern Cape is still in control of 37 municipalities. It can’t be when you lose one metro you’re a loser,” Mabuyane said.
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