by BALDWIN NDABA AND LUYOLO MKENTANE
Johannesburg - The government of the City of Joburg still hangs in the balance, and two senior opposition leaders have now been tasked to broker a way out of the impasse.
The Daily News's sister paper, The Star understands UDM leader Bantu Holomisa and Cope leader Mosiuoa Lekota have had discussions with EFF leader Julius Malema about a possible resolution of the latter's disagreement around the DA’s mayoral candidate Herman Mashaba.
The biggest prize in municipal government looked set to elude the DA on Wednesday, despite a broad opposition coalition to keep the ANC out in almost all the other hung municipalities.
That is because the ANC won the largest share of the vote in the city and can only be displaced by an opposition coalition that includes the EFF. But the latter refuses to anoint Mashaba, a libertarian tycoon with conservative, pro-business instincts.
The EFF has vowed to help the DA’s mayoral candidates – or at least not stand in their way – get elected in all the hung metro councils except Joburg, where the party will abstain from the mayoral vote.
Insiders have told the The Star the EFF was particularly aggrieved by comments made by Mashaba and the DA’s Nelson Mandela Bay mayoral candidate Athol Trollip, that voters should not back the smaller parties ahead of this month’s polls.
“This was the major source of the impasse. All the smaller parties also expressed the same concerns during a series of meetings held between all the parties ahead of the agreement,” one of the sources said.
He said the coalition agreement between DA, UDM, ACDP and Cope was struck at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Rosebank at 8pm on Tuesday. The anti-ANC alliance that emerged from the talks encompasses virtually all of South Africa’s opposition parties, bar the EFF. That could limit the impact of the alliance, given the EFF’s emergence as the most powerful kingmakers following the elections.
According to sources, Holomisa and Lekota had – before the announcement of the coalition on Wednesday – already engaged Malema in talks on Tuesday. They said further discussions were expected to be held as parties have until next Wednesday to make final decisions on a coalition government.
On Wednesday, DA leader Mmusi Maimane, during the announcement of their coalition, conceded “a lot was said about smaller parties” during the municipal poll.
Maimane, however, said all political parties did everything in their power to maximise support for their individual parties. Earlier, Maimane confirmed an agreement had been reached that his party's mayoral candidate Solly Msimanga would be confirmed as Tshwane mayor and Trollip as Nelson Mandela Bay Metro, but would say nothing of Joburg.
In another setback for the opposition coalition, Maimane confirmed they had been unable to lure the small African Independent Congress (AIC) to support them in Ekurhuleni but expressed confidence all was not lost there. With the AIC voting with the ANC, the ruling party’s Mzwandile Masina is likely to be elected mayor there.
But on Wednesday, there was still confidence among the opposition party ranks over their ability to freeze the ANC out of all the Gauteng metros.
Holomisa, despite confirming they’ve been appointed as brokers in the dispute – appeared confident the Gauteng metros and Nelson Mandela Bay would be under the control of opposition parties.
“We must take responsibility for Joburg as coalition partners. We still have until Monday to fix the problems, if any. The negotiations must continue,” he said.
Maimane chipped in, saying they had campaigned for change in Joburg and wanted to effect it.
Holomisa continued: “Since Zuma ascended to power, we have won many cases against the ANC (as opposition parties). These were the easiest negotiations I've ever been involved in because we have been working together (as the opposition) in Parliament.”
Maimane said the parties also wanted to extend their co-operation to Rustenburg in the North West, where the ANC had also failed to win a clear majority.
"Discussions regarding Rustenburg are still taking place.”
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