DA to push for law to stabilise coalitions

The DA says it will push for new legislation to be passed early in 2023 to ensure the stability of coalition governments. “While the DA is proud of the work that has been done this year, we are committed to doing more and using our size and position in parliament to push for greater reforms,” DA chief whip Siviwe Gwarube said on Monday.

SA’s main opposition party, the DA, says it will push for new legislation to be passed early in 2023 to ensure the stability of coalition governments.

“While the DA is proud of the work that has been done this year, we are committed to doing more and using our size and position in parliament to push for greater reforms,” DA chief whip Siviwe Gwarube said during a briefing on Monday to review the party’s performance in the current year and outline new plans.

“In the year to come, the DA will ... pass legislation that will help improve the lives of South Africans, including our coalition bill that will seek to stabilise coalitions across the country.”

The party says the bill will be crucial in preventing the instability that has become a feature of local government in recent times. The proposals by the DA include formalising coalition agreements, meaning there must be a legal requirement when drawing up agreements and it must clearly set out the principles that partners adhere to, including conflict-resolution procedures in the event of disagreements, DA leader John Steenhuisen said recently.

The Gauteng metros of the capital Tshwane, economic hub Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni came under the rule of a DA-led multiparty coalition after the ANC’s support fell below 50% during the November 2021 municipal elections, for the first time since 1994.

With the governing ANC also in danger of losing its majority in the general elections in 2024, coalitions could dominate the political landscape for the foreseeable future. While coalitions have proved successful in Europe and elsewhere, they have been problematic in SA, with many of them falling apart acrimoniously amid widening ideological differences and bickering over positions, hampering service delivery.

According to Steenhuisen, coalition agreements, across all spheres of government, should reflect the coalition partners’ commitment to multiparty government and should enable the maintenance of the coalition over the course of the term of government.

There is currently no legislation that regulates coalitions or that stipulates what must be included in a coalition agreement to make it valid. There is also no oversight body or institution that holds and publishes these agreements.

“A coalition agreement is currently merely a document of goodwill between parties, with no consequences for breaching it. SA can learn from Kenya, where political parties who negotiate to enter into a coalition are required, by Kenya’s Political Parties Act ... to deposit their written political agreement with Kenya’s registrar of political parties,” Steenhuisen said.

The DA maintains that to entrench public accountability in coalition governments, SA could benefit from the Kenyan concept, which includes an independent registrar of political parties and a political party dispute tribunal to deal with any differences that may arise during the lifespan of a particular coalition agreement.

SA could establish a registrar of political parties to impartially administer coalition agreements and ensure that coalition partners commit, to the fullest extent possible, towards the maintenance of the coalition agreement. The registrar should be a politically independent individual of high standing such as a retired judge, Steenhuisen said.

Political analyst Sanusha Naidu said the DA’s proposal and the electoral reforms contained in the Electoral Amendment Bill, to allow independent candidates to contest elections as required by a 2020 Constitutional Court judgment, need to be ventilated in the context of ensuring stability and that voter needs are not ignored.

“You get a sense that there is very little honouring of the [coalition agreements]. The challenge is how fragile those arrangements are. They are not defined by a legislative process or framework that can provide the kind of stability coalitions need,” Naidu said.

The coalition agreements need to be strengthened, especially considering that such governing arrangements could become the order of the day after the next general election, Naidu said.

A COALITION [DEAL] IS CURRENTLY MERELY A DOCUMENT OF GOODWILL BETWEEN PARTIES, WITH NO CONSEQUENCES FOR BREACHING IT