Coalitions in South Africa’s major metros are reaching unprecedented new levels of instability simultaneously, with ongoing disputes in Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and KwaZulu-Natal. The major losers are the South African people.
Below, we look at the factors enabling the coalition mess in South Africa’s major metros to play out.
1. There are no laws governing South African coalition agreements at present
This is arguably the biggest problem affecting the entire coalition ecosystem in South Africa, and remedying it would address many of the points below. Bodies ranging from the South African Local Government Association (Salga) to the DA have proposed amendments to the legislative framework to try to bring some stability to governance agreements.
Among the changes proposed by the DA: that coalition agreements must be formal, legally binding accords; that there should be more time available to parties to negotiate coalitions after election results are announced; and that there should be a limit to the frequency with which motions of no confidence can be brought in the legislature.
Even such measures will not be a silver bullet — since, as Wits law professor Marius Pieterse wrote in 2020: “One cannot legislate against political pettiness.” It is generally accepted that the environment in which coalition governments work best is one of political maturity — not, sadly, a description which finds much resonance in South Africa.
2. As things stand, parties can simply walk away from agreements
Salga’s report on local government coalitions, prepared by the Dullah Omar Institute in 2021, notes that there are multiple problems currently with coalition agreements in municipalities, including that they are vague and often not available to the public.
Although parties recently have been publishing coalition agreements in the hope that making these contracts public will cause those reneging on them to lose credibility, there are few signs that this is working.
The Patriotic Alliance (PA) led by Gayton McKenzie is a particular villain here, having repeatedly either exited coalitions or threatened to do so since its improved election performance in 2021.
3. Parties are desperate to get their own candidates into key positions
This is what the DA says happened recently with ActionSA: it fielded its own candidate for mayor in Johannesburg despite all coalition partners (according to John Steenhuisen) agreeing to back the DA’s Mpho Phalatse.
See also Al Jama-ah, the Muslim-interest party which has proved more than happy to provide councillor Thapelo Amad as Johannesburg mayor despite the fact that every indication is that he ...