Amid opposition concerns about an ANC-EFF tie-up, the governing party’s national leadership has fully endorsed its Gauteng chapter’s alliance with Julius Malema’s “red berets”, says ANC provincial chair Panyaza Lesufi.
The ANC in Gauteng has worked with the EFF on an ad hoc basis since 2019. But after losing 10 of the province’s 11 municipalities in the 2021 local government election, it has forged stronger ties with the party.
It’s become a point of concern among some ANC national executive committee (NEC) members, as well as party structures in the province, due to the hard line the EFF has taken on President Cyril Ramaphosa, and its stated objective to remove the ANC from power.
Lesufi picked up on the issue at a meeting of the provincial executive committee (PEC) on March 28. In his address, which the FM has seen, he said he and his team had consulted the ANC national leadership, including the NEC’s special team on metro negotiations.
“We even held a virtual meeting with our national office bearers [NOBs] on our approach to win Joburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni. We were given the go-ahead by the NEC subcommittee and the NOBs on one condition: that the ANC must not be worse off out of these arrangements,” Lesufi said.
This means Ramaphosa and his deputy, Paul Mashatile, have given their blessing to a closer working relationship with the EFF — a possible signal that a national tie-up after the 2024 general election may not be far-fetched. ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has already said coalitions with leftist parties such as the EFF will be more tolerable than with parties elsewhere on the political spectrum.
In politics of coalitions you lose the luxury of playing a big brother that must always get what it wants without compromising
— Panyaza Lesufi
The DA at its national congress this month declared the EFF “Enemy No 1”, saying it would do everything possible to prevent an ANC-EFF “doomsday coalition”.
In an attempt to ward off such a possibility, leader John Steenhuisen suggested a “moonshot pact” with other opposition parties to politically secure the country and at-risk provinces.
The largest opposition party abandoned working with the EFF after an internal report showed that its co-operation with the red berets shaved about three percentage points from its support after its already dismal performance in the 2019 national election, where it took 20.77% of the vote.
Investors, too, have been watching the space closely, fearing that a pact with the EFF could result in the ANC taking a more radical approach to economic, land and monetary policy.
The ANC has not formally announced its approach to coalitions: a progress report on the issue is due to be tabled when the NEC meets at the end of the month.
That said, ANC Gauteng head of elections Lebogang Maile tells the FM the party isn’t planning to enter coalitions in the province because it is confident of winning a majority. Only if that fails will it begin talks with possible partners.
But the party seems to be sending mixed messages. Lesufi circulated his PEC input to ANC structures this week after the Sunday Times quoted him saying the party in the province would need to partner with the EFF after next year’s election because its support may be as low as 40%.
His explanation also comes after an ANC branch in Ekurhuleni wrote to Ramaphosa in February, warning him that the party in the province would regret associating with the EFF.
Branch secretary Jabu Mbongwa wrote: “We are of the view that the deployed narrow approach is limited to only seizing power at all costs and lacks science. It is narrowly structured as ‘dealings’ and lacks revolutionary integrity, which could have dire political consequences.”
Lesufi used his PEC address to respond to such criticism. “We are fully aware as this province some members are treating us with disdain, suspicion and openly labelling us rebels that sleep with the enemy, forgetting that in politics of coalitions you lose the luxury of playing a big brother that must always get what it wants without compromising,” he said.
He went on to list ANC accomplishments through coalitions in the province, from reclaiming Emfuleni municipality with the help of the Patriotic Alliance (PA) to an ANC-EFF alliance taking control of the Joburg and Ekurhuleni metros — the latter just last week.
As Maile tells it, there is a sharp misunderstanding of the relationship between the ANC and the EFF. The parties aren’t in a coalition, he says, but in an arrangement aimed at removing the DA from running Gauteng’s metros because the party has “messed up”.
What it means: If instability in Gauteng’s metro councils is anything to go by, an ANC-EFF tie-up is unlikely to inspire confidence in voters
— What it means:
But all isn’t running as smoothly as the Gauteng ANC and its leaders may hope. For a start, the ANC and EFF’s move to place minority parties in the Joburg and Tshwane mayoral seats has proved disastrous.
In Joburg, the ANC- and EFF-supported mayor, Al Jama-ah’s Thapelo Amad, is woefully out of his depth. He caused an uproar in a recent SABC interview when he said he had been “offered a R9.5bn loan” from a “company” to “bolster service delivery”.
The metro has the largest municipal budget and is sensitive to credit ratings. Suggesting even the possibility of a flagrant disregard for due process could harm Joburg’s financial standing. (Amad backtracked on Monday, saying his reference to the R9.5bn loan was merely an example of unsolicited bids received by the city.)
Amad is set to face at least one vote of no confidence in the near future. ActionSA national chair Michael Beaumont tells the FM his party will bring two such motions in Joburg, against Amad and COPE speaker Colleen Makhubele. She claimed to be unable to fulfil her duties as a result of illness on March 22, only to appear at a Tshwane council sitting on the same day.
ActionSA has already “taken steps to ensure that the motion succeeds” when it is tabled, probably at the end of the month, says Beaumont.
In Ekurhuleni, the ANC was meant to fill five mayoral committee seats, with its councillors set to take office last week. But they failed to arrive at the council sitting for their swearing-in, and only the EFF councillors, who secured the powerful posts of speaker and finance MMC in the deal, took up their mayoral committee seats.
Reports indicate that the ANC is upset about the lowly posts it received. But the FM understands it has another problem on its hands: the arrangement in Ekurhuleni has complicated its relationship with the PA, a key partner in Joburg.
The PA is not only unhappy that it was left out of the arrangement in Ekurhuleni. Its leader, Gayton McKenzie, has also apologised for the party’s role in appointing the hapless Amad in Joburg.
Aside from the embarrassment caused to the party by the ANC and EFF, there’s a further factor to consider. The PA’s core base has rejected the ANC in key areas such as Ennerdale, potentially leading to a shift in support.
If you are talking about a moonshot pact, you have to show maturity to get things right on a smaller scale in places like the metros
— Michael Beaumont
McKenzie is understood to be reconsidering his alliance with the ANC — an issue his party’s national leadership was set to discuss at a meeting on Tuesday night. If the party withdraws its support, the ANC-EFF alliance in Joburg could be toppled.
Still, it’s by no means a done deal: McKenzie’s approach to coalitions has so far been haphazard and he may decide to continue propping up the two parties. But if he were to abandon that arrangement, Ekurhuleni could also be up for grabs again.
Meanwhile, a move by the ANC and EFF to take control of the council in Tshwane failed spectacularly when it emerged that COPE mayor Murunwa Makwarela — put in place by the alliance — is an unrehabilitated insolvent and produced an allegedly fake clearance certificate to take up the post. He has since resigned and appeared in court, and the mayoral seat has been returned to the DA, with former MP Cilliers Brink filling the post.
The Tshwane speaker appointed by the ANC and EFF — the African Transformation Movement’s Mncedi Ndzwanana — is also on the ropes, with a DA-led motion of no confidence that was to have been tabled on Wednesday.
As with so much in the coalition landscape at present, the outcome of that motion was uncertain after the resignation of a DA councillor, and with another coalition councillor on sick leave.
As far as Beaumont is concerned, the DA — as the largest opposition coalition partner in the metros — has to play its part. The big question, though, is whether it can put aside its differences with parties such as ActionSA and the PA.
“If you are talking about a moonshot pact, you have to show maturity to get things right on a smaller scale in places like the metros,” Beaumont tells the FM. “Time is running out.”
South Africa’s chaotic coalition space is once again in flux, and developments this week will have a profound effect on the power balance in metros and municipalities, particularly in Gauteng, as the 2024 election approaches. Voters will be watching closely.
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