With the local government elections done and dusted last week, the public focus now moves to the all important task of constituting governments in municipalities, especially in areas where there was no outright winner.
Horse trading between parties kicked off in earnest at the weekend, with smaller parties trying to convince the ANC or the DA to form coalition governments with them.
ActionSA, which is a significant player in the City of Johannesburg with 16% of the vote, is adamant that it will not work with the ANC. This leaves it with only the DA as a potential majority partner.
Furthermore, ActionSA said it would back whichever party shares its values and importantly, which will agree to hand over the mayoral chain to its leader Herman Mashaba.
This is where things may get tricky for Mashaba’s outfit.
The DA appears unwilling to let go of the mayor seat, with leader John Steenhiusen arguing that it would not make sense to give such a strategic position to a party which only got 16% of the vote.
Meanwhile, the EFF published an even more daring list of demands for whoever comes knocking on its door. In exchange for its support in one municipality, the party wants a partner willing to give it full power to exclusively govern another municipality where the EFF failed to get the nod from voters.
It also wants an undertaking for the implementation of its ideological demands, such as the nationalisation of the Reserve Bank, cancellation of student debt and the creation of a state bank, none if which fall under the constitutional mandate of local governance.
The EFF knows this is highly unlikely to happen. These demands have so far not enjoyed support from the majority of law makers in Parliament.
Therefore, listing them as part of its coalition demands can be interpreted as the party’s attempt to play up its power on the negotiating table.
To be fair, it must be expected that at the beginning of the negotiation process, parties would overplay their sway with ambitious demands that are inherently about their own survival than they are about voters.
But in the days to come we hope to see reasonable talks that are aimed at forming stable and efficient governments which are responsive and accountable to the people.
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