DOWN AND OUT?

Ignoring its coalition partners and ideological differences over the land issue were key factors in the DA’s fall from grace, say political experts after the removal this week of two of the party’s mayors.

Ideological differences over land issue also a factor, says analyst.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has only itself, its internal divisions and undermining of its coalition partners to blame for losing all the three metros it famously won and controlled via coalitions in 2016, political commentators say.

They said the DA paid the price for its arrogance of bossing other parties by insisting on implementing its own policies and ignored concerns of the smaller parties that helped it come to power.

Also, the DA was a victim of a new black political realignment emanating from a common interest around the land expropriation without compensation.

This week the ANC recaptured Joburg and elected Geoff Makhubo as mayor while Nelson Mandela mayor Mongamela Bobani were also ousted. Tshwane mayor Stevens Mokgalapa was also given the boot until it was suspended in court yesterday (see side story).

The metros were previously dominated by the DA, which governed them through coalitions.

Political commentator Dumisani Mthethwa from Water Sisulu University of Technology said it was unwise of the DA to undermine its crucial coalition partners like the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Cope and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in Johannesburg and the EFF in Tshwane.

“It failed to stick to its 2016 coalition agreements it entered with the parties by not implementing policies based on a multi-party consensus. Those parties retaliated by voting against the DA.

“The party failed to support former Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba’s initiative to work closely with the EFF and other parties. They should have taken Johannesburg as a test case to implement in all its metros,” he said.

Political analyst Andre Duvenhage attributed the DA losses to the emergence of a new political realignment due to ideological differences over the land questions between the DA and other parties – mainly black parties.

He said the fact that some of the smaller parties like Cope and the IFP aligned themselves with the ANC showed a move towards reconfiguration of politics by parties with common interests.

Mashaba’s resignation, despite doing so well in Johannesburg, showed there was something wrong with the DA.

“It’s clear that many members are not happy with the way the DA is carrying on. There are many divisions but they are not spoken about. Many are in the party for money alone,” Mthethwa said.

The DA failed to appreciate that coalitions are nothing but a government of national unity and governance should be by consensus.

To ignore the interests of the poor and implement policies that favoured the rich was bound to backfire.

The analyst lamented the fact that politicians were playing games by moving from one coalition government to another in all three metros, saying this left people in the lurch and suffering the consequences.

This may have cost the DA. “These political parties are playing games but they do not bother about people that are watching on the sidelines. Coalitions are supposed to be models of democracy and consensus governance, but parties are failing to implement coalitions correctly,” said Mthethwa.