Durban - As Tuesday’s deadline to constitute councils draws nearer, the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal says that it is talking to all smaller parties to see which parties it can work with in running eThekwini.
ANC spokesperson Nhlakanipho Ntombela said that the agreement reached this week by the party at national level, which saw the ANC and IFP agreeing that they would not contest each other at councils where each party had a majority, would also cover the eThekwini metro.
Following negotiations between the top brass of the two parties, the IFP and ANC this week reached an agreement described by IFP President Velenkosini Hlabisa as allowing the party with the most votes to govern, while the other party is relegated to the opposition in what were 21 hung municipalities in KZN.
However, Ntombela said that this did not bar them from engaging with smaller parties in an effort to seal a coalition deal in eThekwini.
“The agreement we have with Inkatha covers eThekwini, but we are talking to the smaller parties, all of the smaller parties,” Ntombela said.
He could not be drawn into specifically naming the smaller parties that they were in negotiations with in eThekwini, but the EFF is clearly not part of those negotiations with smaller parties after the ANC ruled out working with the red berets.
EFF KZN chairperson Vusi Khoza said that they were not in any coalition talks as various parties had opted not to work together with the red berets.
Khoza said that they would be carrying on with their lives and that if the ANC changed its mind and opted to negotiate with EFF they would be open for such talks.
samkelo.mtshali@inl.co.za
Political Bureau