DA-ANC coalition ‘not on the cards’

STEENHUISEN: INSISTS VIEWS MISREPRESENTED

Primary aim is to reduce ANC majority to below 50%, says opposition leader.

Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen yesterday stuck to his guns that the Sunday Times misrepresented his views on coalition governments and the realignment of politics in South Africa.

Steenhuisen, speaking during a broadcast of the DA’s The Inside Track show, said he believed there were “reformers” in the ANC that his party could work with to move SA forward.

Would the DA ever go into coalition with the ANC? “No, not in the current form of the ANC,” he said. “The primary focus that we all have to have in SA is to bring the ANC below 50%. We’ve got to get them out of power to ensure that glue of patronage doesn’t hold them together any more – and it will give the reformers space to be able to strike out in a new direction.”

About the newspaper report, he said: “At no stage in that interview did I say we would enter into a coalition with the ANC as it stands today. I was asked whether we would work with them and I said yes, we would work with them. But working with them does not necessarily mean a coalition,” he said.

Steenhuisen said the debate on coalition politics was long overdue – especially ahead of the local government elections in August and November. “We are going to have to work together across party lines if we are to succeed in getting rid of Busisiwe Mkhwebane, the public protector,” he said.

“If we all just sit in our little voting blocks and we don’t find common ground on this, she is going to continue to be the public protector and there will be longterm damage to both that office and South Africa.”

He said his party had already extended “a hand of friendship” to President Cyril Ramaphosa in parliament about his reform agenda.

“The people, who have either wilfully or intentionally tried to misrepresent what was said, are trying to say what does this mean and if the DA will collapse into the ANC, absolutely not. What I did say very clearly though was that the time is coming [to work together] because our country is in a very difficult space. –

Working with them does not mean a coalition