Government on track with developing coalition government framework, NCOP hears

Deputy president Paul Mashatile says a report will be tabled before parliament soon after political parties concluded their consultations with their constituencies on the outcomes of national dialogue on coalition governments. 

“Political parties at the dialogue agreed to go back to their constituencies to consult once more and come back to give feedback and then we will be able to finalise the document. 

“So far the IFP has responded, we are waiting for other parties to do the same and then we will finalise the document. It’s a comprehensive approach because we are not doing it ad hoc, we are doing it for the future to ensure stable government throughout the country,” said Mashatile answering questions on the recent national coalition dialogue on coalition governments at the National Council of Provinces on Thursday. 

ANC MP Seiso Mohai asked Mashatile whether there were plans to advance a similar cohesive consensus on the formation of coalitions at local government level, where informal coalition governments continue to have an adverse impact on the delivery of basic services to communities and lead to dysfunctional municipalities. 

At the University of the Western Cape last month, Mashatile said political parties, academics and other stakeholders came together to discuss a set of guiding principles to promote the effective functioning of coalition government. 

“Through collaborative efforts we can establish a robust and effective, stable and resilient local government that serves all our citizens. By defining the rules, procedures and potential sanctions that would apply to political parties and independent councillors who govern together, we will ensure fairness, transparency and accountability in our political system.”

The dialogue agreed that political parties and civil society are expected to enhance the declaration, process a road map towards the development of the framework and facilitate the drafting of the legislation to govern all coalition governments in SA. 

Once all the submissions have been made, the report will be tabled before parliament. 

Mashatile reminded the house that coalition government in the country “almost caught us unprepared” and it was during the 2016 elections that political parties realised they had to work together. 

“Since then we have realised that there are a number of challenges at local government level where you have coalition government, primarily because the rules were never clear.”

Mashatile said it became a “give and take” situation. 

“That’s why we thought let’s develop a transparent framework where parties have input and come with a set of principles that say, once you find yourself in that situation these are the important things you need to do.” 

Asked whether the ANC would support the DA’s coalition bills currently before parliament, Mashatile said it’s good when political parities work together. 

“We are not going to differ with the DA for the sake of it, where we differ, we differ. We did say that legislation will follow. The minister of Cogta also indicated that they were drafting legislation and when they discussed that we were busy with this process, they decided to wait.”

Once the framework is finalised, Mashatile said Cogta will use it as a guide to formulate legislation. “We thought that we should not rush into legislation, let’s allow the process to be completed.”

Asked whether the process was an admission from the ANC that the party could get below 50% in the 2024 elections, “this exercise was a desperate attempt to cling to power?” 

Mashatile said this is not the first time that it had been put to the ANC that it would garner less than 50% of the votes next year.

“It’s far from it. The national executive committee of the ANC decided that South Africa already has coalition governments in many local authorities. The coalitions are there, the NEC then said let’s come up with clear set of rules, not so much about 2024, that will guide coalition governments.”

Mashatile told the house that President Cyril Ramaphosa said that the governing party is campaigning for victory and not to be in a coalition.

He said it’s not true that the party was taking an interest in coalition governments now. 

“When we had this problem in 2016, I was among those engaged in discussion on the coalition governments.” 

Mashatile said he worked with the DA’s Helen Zille and EFF’s Floyd Shivambu. 

“We currently have 81 hung municipalities and so this has become so real, that if we do not have rules that govern us, we are going to have chaos.”

Mashatile said it was not about “taking power from people” but about ensuring stability, good governance and effective service delivery.