Talks over metro control stall

Very little progress has been made in talks between the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the ActionSA as their bilateral discussions stalled on the appointment of mayoral executive committees in the DA-run metros of Joburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni.

The appointments topped the agenda at the parties’ talks this week but they could not agree on modalities of the process. It’s understood there was no movement on the formation of coalition administrations and how service delivery should be done.

The DA grabbed the City of Joburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni in close contests with the now-opposition ANC, after it received voluntary support from ActionSA and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

But the DA could not govern without consulting the two parties, although it did not invite them to vote for its candidates during last week’s mayoral elections.

Now the parties and their smaller counterparts must bargain on how each should be represented in the mayoral executives. It remained to be seen if the EFF would be accommodated in the executive structures as the DA rejected any coalition with the red berets.

To achieve smooth and stable coalitions, there should be consensus among all potential coalition partners regarding representation and there should be further agreements between individual parties.

All this has to happen within the 14-day deadline set for the mayoral committees to be appointed since a mayor had been elected.

The mayors had until next Tuesday to appoint their members of the mayoral committee (MMCs), failing which the provincial department of co-operative governance and traditional affairs would intervene.

ActionSA national chair Michael Beaumont said: “The ball is in the DA’s court. They have been saying they want to see coalitions in place and will act in a humble manner to achieve this. If they want these coalitions to work they should do nothing to stop them from happening.”

Beaumont insisted ActionSA wasn’t in the council for positions and it was happy to occupy the opposition benches.