DA rejects Mpho’s EFF plan
Party’s federal executive says it cannot work with a party — the EFF — that says it’s OK to kill whites
Former Johannesburg mayor Mpho Phalatse’s attempts to regain control of the city were dealt a blow this week when the DA rejected her proposal to work with the EFF to unseat the ANC-led coalition.
DA federal chairperson Helen Zille confirmed to the Sunday Times that the federal executive had turned down Phalatse’s proposal.
Phalatse told a federal executive meeting on Thursday that the EFF in Johannesburg had undertaken to work with the DA again in the metro in exchange for a single committee chair position.
The EFF has 29 council seats and has been instrumental in keeping the DA in power since the 2021 elections. This changed recently when the red berets switched sides, along with the Patriotic Alliance, handing the city back to the ANC.
Without both the EFF and PA, the DA cannot govern in any of the municipalities in Gauteng, except in Tshwane. The sour relationship between the DA and ActionSA has put other coalitions in Ekurhuleni and Tshwane under threat.
Phalatse has taken her removal to court, challenging the process that was followed. The South Gauteng high court reserved judgment in the matter this week.
When asked why the DA rejected the proposal, Zille showed this reporter a video clip of EFF leader Julius Malema telling delegates at a provincial congress: “You must never be scared to kill. A revolution demands that at some point there must be killing because killing is part of a revolution act.”
Zille acknowledged that the DA cannot win back power without the EFF but said the DA would not work with a party that calls for the killing of white people.
“We cannot govern with a party who applauds when their leader calls on his followers to murder people on the basis of their race,” Zille said.
She added that the DA had made an undertaking to never negotiate any deals with the EFF or any coalition arrangements with it, whereas its coalition partner, ActionSA, had “taken the opposite position” and was “prepared to go into coalition with the EFF”.
“ActionSA has also been trying a range of strategies in KwaDukuza, Nelson Mandela Bay and Johannesburg, for example, to corner us into doing deals with the EFF. We have consistently avoided this trap,” Zille told the Sunday Times. “Once you enable the EFF to start the politics of extortion (we will do x for you if you support us with y), it is just the start of a slippery slope of increasing extortion.”
She said the DA’s federal executive rejected Phalatse’s proposal to work with the EFF because the red berets already have an agreement in place with the ANC.
“They just wanted to get us caught in a trap, and we nimbly sidestepped it. We cannot allow ourselves to be trapped by a party that threatens to murder whites,” Zille said.
Phalatse confirmed making the proposal. “I tabled a proposal for consideration. I believe it is in the best interest of residents to have a government that includes the DA. I am of the view that the residents need a coalition of hope rather than an ANC-led coalition of corruption.”
She said she accepted the federal executive’s decision.
The relationship between the DA and ActionSA showed severe cracks this week when the latter broke from the DA-led coalition by fielding its own candidates in the Johannesburg metro without consulting its partners.
ActionSA on Friday fielded candidates for the positions of chair of chairs, section 79 committee on health and social development, chair of the petitions committee and chief whip of council. They were defeated in all positions. ActionSA national chairperson Michael Beaumont said after the party conducted a survey on who it should work with in a coalition, its leader Herman Mashaba wrote to the DA asking them to come back to the table, but there seemed to be lack of appetite from them.
According to Beaumont, the ActionSA senate will have to make tough decisions on its relationship with the DA, including whether to force the coalition despite the DA’s unwillingness, or go it alone.
“If people are saying they are concerned about the DA in the coalition, and we are writing to the DA leader and saying we are having concerns about our place in the coalition that you lead, and the DA is unwilling to come to the table, there is no doubt ActionSA’s senate is going to ask some very difficult questions about our working with the DA. I don’t know answers but the questions will have to be dealt with,” Beaumont said.
He said a sizeable number of people in its survey said ActionSA should leave the coalition and go it alone, while more than 80% said it must go into coalitions.
He said, however, that ActionSA would not go to the DA begging to be part of a coalition, though it is clear that it cannot govern without either the ANC or the DA.
“From our side that statement has ruled out our ability to work with the ANC, and that only leaves the possibility of going it alone or working with a coalition that works with the DA.
“Now it is our preference that our engagements with the DA are responded to with more maturity and magnanimity than has happened so far. Even if it hasn’t happened until now, I can’t imagine how the DA will justify not trying to en gage in these matters,” Beaumont said.
“If the DA is refusing to so much as to talk and listen and reflect upon the past 11 months, the senate will have to seriously consider the option of going it alone.”
Zille denied that ActionSA had made contact with the DA asking them to come back to the negotiating table.
They just wanted to get us caught in a trap, and we nimbly sidestepped it Helen Zille DA federal chairperson