An existential crisis is looming for John Steenhuisen’s “Moonshot Pact”, which the leader of the official opposition Democratic Alliance has mooted as the best way of ejecting the ANC/EFF alliance from National Governmental power next year.
All of Steenhuisen’s proposed partners in what is also termed the Rainbow Coalition are rallying behind a different candidate to the DA’s nominee for today’s vote for the Mayor of Johannesburg, South Africa’s richest Metro.
Action SA leader Herman Mashaba, who initiated today’s motion of no confidence in the since resigned ANC/EFF-appointed Mayor, tells BizNews his party’s candidate Funzi Ngobeni has the support of the IFP, FF+, ACDP, UIM and, critically, the “kingmaking” Patriotic Alliance.
As things stand, however, Steenhuisen’s Democratic Alliance has refused to join its potential Moonshot Alliance partners, insisting on supporting its own candidate, former Joburg Mayor Mpho Phalatse. Mashaba says this is irrational as it is doomed to failure without the other political parties, particularly the swing vote of the Patriotic Alliance. He says this shows the DA is not really serious about removing the ruling ANC from Johannesburg.
Action SA issued a statement this morning which clarifies its position. It is republished in full below. Also republished below is Steenhuisen’s latest weekly newsletter, distributed yesterday, explaining why the “Moonshot Pact” should be supported.
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Former Coalition Partners Unite Behind Ngobeni for Joburg Mayor
From Action SA
ActionSA can confirm that it has been holding engagements with the IFP, the FF Plus, the ACDP and the UIM to determine the viability of rallying around a Mayoral Candidate that can stabilise governance for the benefit of all residents in Johannesburg.
In the wake of the DA’s unilateral announcement of Mpho Phalatse’s candidature, these parties have engaged in this process because of their commitment to governance stability, service delivery and combatting corruption – all of which cannot succeed with the ANC and EFF in government.
ActionSA is pleased to report that following considerable engagement, our Johannesburg Caucus Leader, Funzi Ngobeni will be nominated as the candidate to be supported by these parties. We express our humble appreciation to our partners for their confidence. There have also been engagements with other parties represented in the Johannesburg council, many of whom see the merit in a coalition that is led by a party other than the ANC or the DA.
Ngobeni (48) is the ActionSA Gauteng Provincial Chairperson and has served in the Johannesburg Mayoral Committee of two administrations in 2016 and 2021 terms of office. He has served as MMC for Finance, MMC Development Planning and an MMC Transport as well as the Leader of Executive Business. Ngobeni has both public sector and private sector experience and holds a post graduate diploma in public management. Importantly, especially given recent coalition history, he has proven to be a leader with the temperament to stabilise a coalition and this is undoubtedly a key consideration in the support of our partners.
Yesterday, ActionSA wrote to the DA on behalf of this collective of parties and requested an urgent engagement to seek the DA’s support for Ngobeni’s candidature for the mayoralty in Johannesburg. The case was made for the fact that Ngobeni could achieve a majority in council with the support of the DA, something that Phalatse cannot achieve (even with our collective support) because of the breakdown of relationships between the DA and other parties in council.
The DA refused the opportunity to meet responding only to persist in their unilateral nomination of Phalatse despite this only increasing the likelihood of an ANC and EFF government in Johannesburg – the stated purpose of the moonshot pact to prevent.
ActionSA is proud to stand among parties that have proven their unequivocal commitment to providing an alternative to the ANC and EFF in Johannesburg as well as in the 2024 elections. These parties have proven that they will not shy away from this commitment and nor will we be selective in terms of when they choose to live up to it.
Cities like Johannesburg with complex challenges cannot be fixed in the opposition benches and this is why these parties will work together today in Johannesburg and is willing to work with other parties to keep the ANC and EFF out of government.
Read more: Nelson Mandela Bay’s opposition coalition: A beacon of stability in SA
Why you should back the Moonshot Pact
By John Steenhuisen
While ‘moonshot’ originally meant “long shot”, it’s increasingly being used to describe a monumental effort and a lofty goal—in other words, a “giant leap”. Merriam Webster Dictionary
It always seems impossible until it’s done. Nelson Mandela
There can be no doubt that the 2024 national election is make or break for South Africa. On Thursday, Freedom Day, we celebrated the first democratic election of 27 April 1994, when South Africa achieved political freedom for all.
Three decades on, political freedom for all has failed to translate to economic freedom for all. Instead, every day brings more poverty as crime, corruption, living costs, unemployment, and debt continue to soar unchecked. How can we celebrate Workers Day today when unemployment stands at 40% and youth unemployment at 60%?
The 2024 election may be our last chance to use democracy – political freedom for all – to achieve South Africa’s crucial second transition, to being a country of economic freedom for all as envisaged by the Constitution.
By the next national and provincial election in 2029, even if our democracy is still intact – don’t count on it – there will be a lot less to save at the rate that infrastructure and institutions are crumbling, and skills and capital fleeing South Africa.
Coalition country
In 2024, South Africa will properly enter a coalition era. It is highly unlikely the ANC will win outright support nationally or in Gauteng and KZN, the two most populous provinces. Polls already have ANC support at or below 50% nationally and far lower in Gauteng and KZN. And it will continue to fall as high-stage loadshedding, a direct result of ANC corruption and incompetence, continues unabated.
Doomsday Coalition
All indications are that the ANC will form a coalition with the EFF to try stay in power. They’ve already done this in Gauteng, to take back Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni metros from the DA-led coalitions that formed after the 2021 local election. Recent statements by ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula and Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi confirm that an ANC-EFF coalition is on the cards nationally too.
Make no mistake: this will be a calamitous outcome for South Africa. The EFF will insist on a socialist agenda of expropriation without compensation and greater state ownership of the economy, leading to mass disinvestment and even more corruption and poverty.
This will accelerate our slide to state failure, a situation which is extremely hard to reverse, as seen by the Zimbabwean predicament of economic stagnation, rigged elections and opposition oppression. It would truly be a Doomsday Coalition, destroying virtually all hope of economic freedom for all.
Moonshot Pact
The DA has committed to forming a Moonshot Pact with all like-minded non-ANC-EFF opposition parties and groupings in society who share our commitment to building the modern and mature constitutional democracy required to bring economic freedom to all.
The aim of the Moonshot Pact is to bring the combined ANC-EFF vote share below 50% in the 2024 national election and for the Pact partners together to get the 50% plus one required to form a Pact government. Seven like-minded opposition parties have so far indicated a willingness to attend a national convention in June, to formulate our offer to South Africa and agree on our working relationship.
By coming together to form a pre-election coalition, we will offer voters a credible path to power for our reformist government-in-waiting, and therefore hope for a prosperous future.
Clear binary
In 2024, voters will have a clear two-way choice between an ANC-EFF Doomsday Coalition and a DA-led Moonshot Pact. A clear choice between state-led development, race-based policies, corruption and cadre deployment on the one hand, and a market economy, nonracialism, and an honest, capable state on the other. 2024 will be a two-horse race that we have a realistic chance of winning, thanks to this clarity of choice.
Material consequences
The material consequences of this binary choice are already evident in the widening gap between governing outcomes in ANC-run areas versus DA-run areas (such as the Western Cape, Cape Town, Midvaal, Kouga and uMngeni).
The most compelling example is new job creation. StatsSA’s recently reported that in the period October to December 2022, 98% of all new jobs were created in the Western Cape, while the eight ANC-run provinces together contributed a net total of just 2%. Under a Pact government, the whole country will experience the kind of job creation currently only happening in the DA-run Western Cape.
Trust
The Moonshot Pact will only work between parties that all genuinely share a commitment to put South Africa first. It will not work with opportunistic parties that are currently propping up municipalities like Johannesburg, open to the highest bidder. Only those parties that act in good faith can build the stable Pact necessary to win the trust and confidence of voters. The politics of bribery and extortion is a dead-end street that will undermine service delivery and public confidence in coalitions.
All political parties also therefore have a binary choice: either they stand with the Pact or they stand with the Doomsday Coalition. Any party open to the highest bidder and trying to play one side off against the other is not truly committed and will only damage the Pact’s prospects in the long run.
DA anchor
The DA’s dual mission now is on the one hand to ensure a successful Pact by building widespread support for it and treating our Pact partners with respect and diplomacy; and on the other to grow our party so that the DA can be the strong and stable anchor that will ensure the Pact becomes a viable coalition government without the instability we have seen in some places.
Conclusion
The Moonshot Pact gives South Africa the best chance of fulfilling the South African Constitution’s vision of political and economic freedom for all. The 2024 election is our best and perhaps only chance to save South Africa. Everyone who wants South Africa to be a prosperous, modern liberal democracy should get behind the DA and the Moonshot Pact.
