NATASHA MARRIAN: Too many cooks in the kitchen

Wait for it: there are 508 political parties registered with the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC). Sixty-two of them were formed over the past 18 months.

These numbers will produce some unworkable governance arrangements in councils after the 2026/2027 local government election. The IEC announced the dramatic spike at a media briefing at its headquarters on Tuesday.

We are in an era of splinter parties, and even splinters from splinters. There is already an offshoot from Floyd Shivambu’s EFF — splinter outfit the Afrika Mayibuye Movement.

Jacob Zuma’s MK Party fractures on a near three-monthly rotation as it purges leaders across the country, due to intense factional fighting and in the absence of consistent internal structures and leaders.

A now well-established splinter party, the National Freedom Party (NFP) — a 2011 breakaway from the IFP — is threatening to collapse the KwaZulu-Natal government of provincial unity (GPU). The IFP-led coalition includes the ANC and DA, but the NFP provides the one-seat overall majority in the provincial legislature.

Over the past week MK, which with 45% of the vote holds more seats than any other single party, stepped in to take advantage of the evident fragility of the governing coalition.

It seems MK is opportunistically exploiting a key weakness present in the GPU since its formation. But even if the NFP withdraws from the coalition, MK would still need one of the big three parties — the ANC, IFP or DA — to achieve outright control of the legislature.

The FM spoke to NFP president Ivan Barnes this week, after he held a media briefing on Saturday to explain the party’s unhappiness with the coalition. He claims it is governed by a “big brother mentality” where the views of the ANC and the IFP hold absolute sway.

While Barnes detailed corruption and a laundry list of complaints against the GPU and its functioning, one of his gripes stands out. This relates not to governance over the province, but rather to 12 KZN municipalities which have been hung since 2021 — no party has an overall majority.

“Part of the package of the GPU,” says Barnes, “was to incorporate a government of local unity, where we had to sit down and say let us co-govern where applicable, these four parties — the ANC, IFP, NFP and DA. That’s when the IFP ran away and decided to do as it pleased.

“Our core agreement was that if you want to lead the province, we want coalitions even at the local government level.” Barnes says the IFP has formed coalitions with the EFF in some cases, to keep out either the ANC or the NFP. But this is contrary to the agreement that was signed by GPU parties after the general election last year.

Barnes says the NFP has not held formal talks with either the ANC or the IFP to resolve the impasse, but it has agreed to meet MK. “We are meeting on Thursday to hear what it has to say since it invited us, and then we’ll take it from there. We will not beg anyone to sit down and talk to us and if it believes it can run the province without us, so be it.”

However, he is willing to talk to his current partners if approached and, if they do, he would urge them to “go back to basics” with the NFP.

“All of us need to sit down and just speak honestly and share power and see how we can all work together [in the 12 councils],” he says.

All of us need to sit down and just speak honestly and share power and see how we can all work together

—  Ivan Barnes

The impasse is a first for the GPU, which had been functioning relatively well since its formation a year ago.

The IFP said over the weekend that there was “no crisis in the GPU” and called on all parties to “act responsibly and place the interests of the people above partisan politics”. IFP spokesperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa said in a statement that “the GPU represents an important model of co-operation and stability — one that must be nurtured, not undermined”.

The idea of national and provincial agreements extending down to local government could come heavily into play after the local elections next year. But, so far, the larger parties in municipalities have preferred throwing in their lot with smaller parties, in a power play to neutralise their large opponents.

However, this has led to instability and disruption, with small parties holding influence far exceeding their electoral support. Legislation to introduce thresholds, which would in effect limit the number of parties that can obtain seats in councils, is going through parliament.

Dubbed the “coalitions bill”, it would limit entry into councils to parties receiving at least 1% of the votes cast. It is unclear whether it will be passed in time for the next election, but a failure to do so could lead to the kind of messy coalitions produced by the 2021 local election.

The ANC, for instance, used tiny one- and two-seat parties to front its coalition with the EFF in Joburg, with disastrous consequences for businesses and ratepayers.

While there is wisdom in the legislation and in national and provincial coalition pacts extending downward to local government level to boost stability and bolster service delivery, wisdom has never been politicians’ strong suit.