Hard line on talks by DA, EFF

THE EFF and DA say they will not compromise their principles in coalition negotiations in KwaZulu-Natal’s hung municipalities.

Neither the ANC nor the IFP got enough votes to rule eight municipalities alone. They will have to work together or with either the DA or EFF.

The DA, IFP and ANC were locked in meetings yesterday, deliberating how to approach coalition talks.

EFF provincial chairman Vukani Ndlovu said his party had been informally approached – “when we met in corners”.

Ndlovu said his party was waiting for a formal approach. If that happened, its land and economic policies would be up for discussion. He said the EFF would decline a coalition with any party that rejected its cardinal principles.

The EFF had previously said it would not go into a coalition with the ANC, but Ndlovu took a softer stance yesterday.

“As long as the ANC puts our policies on the agenda, we will talk. Even the IFP should discuss our economic policy. We won’t bargain for senior positions,” he said.

He said his party was looking forward to invitations to talks.

The EFF’s agenda includes the expropriation of mines and land without compensation, land redistribution, free education, and the abolition of the current tender system.

The hung municipalities where the ANC failed to get an outright majority are Abaqulusi, Jozini, Endumeni, eDumbe, Mtshezi and Mbabazane. The IFP failed to win Nquthu and Mtubatuba convincingly.

Mbabazane and Jozini were under administration before the elections.

“They must come to us. And they need to resolve this soon because those municipalities need leadership,” said Ndlovu.

The DA spent the whole of yesterday in a meeting. Provincial leader Zwakele Mncwango said: “We are discussing important items, including potential coalitions. Give me time.”

He said the DA had been approached, but it was also not interested in senior positions.

“Our main area of focus is service delivery,” he said.

Mncwango said it would be premature to reveal which parties had approached the DA and for which municipalities the party was being courted.

“We have a team in place to deal with negotiations with those who invited us for talks,” he said.

ANC spokesman Mdumiseni Ntuli yesterday referred questions to party provincial secretary Super Zuma, who was in a meeting the whole day.

IFP national chairman Blessed Gwala was in a meeting with party president Mangosuthu Buthelezi for the whole of yesterday.

Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa commissioner Mawethu Mosery said the IEC would release the final results and list of all councillors tomorrow evening.

Parties will have to fasttrack the negotiations as Co-operative Governance Minister David van Rooyen has said municipalities have to hold their first meetings within 14 days of the declaration of the results.

South Africans should start embracing the era of coalition government because there was little hope individual political parties would dethrone the ANC on their own, a political analyst said.

“This is an era South Africans cannot do much about except embrace, maybe for the next 10 years,” said Unisa’s Professor Lesiba Teffo.

Teffo said it was important for parties in talks to appreciate that coalitions were not equal partnerships but a marriage of compromise.

The ANC should get used to the new reality of coalition government because it was fast losing support, Teffo added.

Political analyst Somadoda Fikeni said the EFF’s demands did not feature at local government level.

He said coalitions would work if the parties entered into coalitions for service provision instead of personal gain.