By Anél Powell
ANC national executive committee chairperson and Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota was among the ANC heavyweights involved in intense talks with the Africa Muslim Party (AMP) in March last year in a bid to block the DA from taking power in the City of Cape Town.
In the past two months Lekota was reportedly also involved in behind-the-scenes discussions with the AMP and ID that almost toppled the DA-led multiparty government last week.
This emerged in a candid interview on Sunday with national chairperson of the AMP, Gulam Sabdia.
In the interview he outlined the route that led to the attempt by councillor Badih Chaaban to negotiate a coalition with the ANC and ID.
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Defence department spokesperson Sam Mkhwanazi said Lekota's involvement in talks with the AMP was a political issue that needed to be answered by the party.
Sabdia said the events that last week resulted in the AMP being booted out of the multi-party government and led to the inclusion of the ID in the DA-led coalition, should be understood in the context of last year's March 15 mayoral elections.
"In March, a week before we joined the multiparty government, we were in talks with the ANC," he said.
The plan was to form a coalition of the ANC, ID and AMP, but on the day of the mayoral elections, March 15, there was still no signed agreement between the three parties.
Sabdia said he told Lekota the ID were still not on board. The AMP had meanwhile agreed to a draft agreement with the DA and smaller parties, which was not yet signed.
Sabdia said the AMP later decided, when confronted by both the ANC and DA on the day of the council meeting, to vote with the DA.
"So the AMP joined the DA and smaller parties and the multiparty government was formed. We never looked back and we were fired up to get things done."
But Sabdia said the AMP has been increasingly frustrated with the DA-led council.
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