SA parties say coalition governments are the future
POLITICAL parties are engaging in talks to form coalitions with the aim of ensuring that the ANC does not return to majority rule in the 2024 national and provincial elections.
Several parties, including the DA, IFP and newly formed Build One South Africa (Bosa), have endorsed coalitions as the future of South African politics, despite challenges in coalition politics in several metropolitan municipalities.
IFP president Velenkosini Hlabisa said the party had recently engaged in bilateral talks with the EFF at a national level as they were exploring the use of a coalition that existed at a local government level as a foundation for 2024 and beyond.
Bilateral talks have also been held with the DA to strengthen the coalition governments where they govern with the DA’S assistance in KZN.
DA leader John Steenhuisen said the IFP and DA had agreed to work with each other and other like-minded parties to lay a strong foundation for coalition governments at local, provincial and national government levels from now until 2024 and beyond.
The City of Joburg, Ekurhuleni, Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay have all experienced relative instability in their coalition arrangements.
“We believe that all political parties should use this period as a learning curve, as an evolutionary stage of coalition, understanding that a coalition government means that no one had a clear win and we must treat each other as co-partners in shaping the lives of our people,” Hlabisa said.
He said they believed in multiparty democracy and that coalitions were the right direction for the future of the country’s politics and development.
“A one-party majority destroyed South Africa. We are living with load shedding under the one-party majority system, unemployment, crime, a weak economy and in fact everything has moved from bad to worse under the rule of a one majority party.
“Coalitions are going to be the way to go with checks and balances.”
Bosa leader Mmusi Maimane said the country, as a young democracy, needed to practise coalitions.
“Coalitions have to happen because … the status quo is not sustainable. Coalitions do work, but South Africa must practise this coalition because we are not used to it,” he said.
EFF KZN chairperson Mongezi Twala said the party would consider a coalition depending on the electorate’s voting patterns.
The ANC did not respond to questions about plans for form coalitions.