There has been a flurry of negotiation behind the scenes to get opposition parties to agree on who should be the next Mayor of Johannesburg and how to keep the ANC/EFF candidate out. Freedom Front Plus Member of Parliament and Chief Whip of the party, Corné Mulder, told BizNews that he has had discussions with other political parties and was confident that ‘good people’ would succeed on Friday when the council reconvened and that the Democratic Alliance’s Mpho Phalatse or Funzi Ngobeni from ActionSA would become Johannesburg’s new Mayor. He also told BizNews how he believed that coalition was the magic bullet to get rid of the ANC and that the FF+ is not interested in including the ruling party in any coalition as he believed they had nothing to contribute. The ANC brought its A-team at the time of Nelson Mandela, Mulder said, but they left and “we are now busy with the G or H-team.” – Linda van Tilburg
Election of 2024 is already being fought in metros of Gauteng
I believe what is going to happen in the metros is a precursor of what we may expect to happen next year in the provinces and in Gauteng, but also on a national level. So, there’s a huge struggle at the moment between the different parties happening in Gauteng. We are busy at the moment trying to put together a coalition of the good people, can I put it that way, the good guys or the good parties or those that should be part of the Moonshot Pact.
I really believe that we will succeed on Friday. What we need to do is – and that is also the purpose of the Moonshot Pact – we need to remove the ANC and the EFF, even if they combine, from government on all levels. That is what we need to do, and it starts at the local government level. We need to start doing that in Johannesburg, and Friday is the first opportunity to do so. I believe that we can find a way and a path forward to have such a successful government put together in Johannesburg.
Read more: Crisis for Steenhuisen’s Moonshot Pact – partners support DA alternative in Joburg
Cracks starting to emerge in ANC-EFF agreements on local level
There are huge cracks in that kind of alliance and there are also huge cracks within the ANC itself. There’s a difference in approach to these things between the ANC in Gauteng and the ANC on a national level. In Gauteng, we have the Premier from the ANC, Mr Lesufi, and he doesn’t mind forming deals with the EFF; he’s quite happy to do so. But that is not what the ANC on national level has got in mind. The ANC on a national level doesn’t want to have any agreement with the EFF because it’s the same EFF that humiliates the President and attacks the President daily in parliament.
Read more: Herman Mashaba – Opposition pact’s ‘Elephant in the Room’ exposed in Joburg Mayoral Drama
On Herman Mashaba accusing the DA of not being serious about ANC removal
I understand what Mr Mashaba is saying in that regard, and that is a logical deduction to make if one looks at the developments of the last 14 days, because the reality is simply that the DA has got 71 councilors in the city of Johannesburg out of a total of 270. There’s no way that the DA can, on their own, get their mayor elected. It’s just not possible with 71 votes. So, they will need the cooperation and assistance of the other political parties that were part of the coalition in the past and even then, we still only have 130. We still need some more votes and that is where the Patriotic Alliance comes in.
So Mr Mashaba’s correct if he says it seems that the DA is not serious if the position is that the DA only nominates their own candidate and doesn’t care what happens because then it is just a technical show and this means nothing. But since last night’s collapse of the council meeting until Friday, I can assure you that there are attempts to rectify that kind of approach and to get all the parties around the table to see if there’s a pathway to success and a way forward and I’m always an optimist. I think we will succeed. Let’s hope.
SA needs new UDF, coalition is the silver bullet to stop the ANC
What we need is a new UDF in South Africa. We need a broad civic movement across the spectrum consisting of all the different spheres of society. Political parties in the Moonshot Pact should also subscribe to this broad church UDF idea, and there will be 10 to 15 broad principles. Principles that spell out best international practice for a successful country. I can vote for any one of those parties of my choice, but I know full well that that party will take my vote into a coalition government after the election. That is the only way that you can do that.
I sometimes use the example of movies. If you see a thriller movie or some movie with some bad creature from outer space and nothing can stop that, then there is sometimes in the movies, some magic thing that can bring this to an end, a silver bullet or a magic potion. In the political sphere, the magic bullet or the magic potion that can stop the ANC, that magic thing is coalitions. That’s the only way that you can remove the ANC and EFF from power.
It’s a no from FF+ on coalition with ANC
I think parties should be very clear before the election to state where they stand. I don’t want people to think that they vote for a political party because they support you and for what you stand for, only to find after the election that you have now misused my vote to keep the ANC in power. The ANC in 30 years of government has convinced me that they don’t have anything to bring to the table. People must also understand the ANC of today is not the ANC of 1994. In ’94, when Mr Mandela was still there, the ANC brought the A-Team into the process. The A-Team left, the B-Team came and went. We are now busy with the G- or the H-Team. The ANC must go. They have nothing to contribute.
