POLITICAL parties will this week finalise coalition talks as the Thursday deadline looms.
Last week DA federal chairperson Helen Zille said the opposition was negotiating with eight political parties and community movements over coalitions.
The Cederberg Municipality in the Western Cape has become the first hung council in the country where parties have entered into a coalition agreement.
The DA, Freedom Front Plus and Cederberg First Residents’ Association entered a deal, with Zille announcing it on social media.
After the polls the IEC announced there were 15 hung councils in the Western Cape.
DA interim leader in the Western Cape Albert Fritz and FF Plus leader Pieter Groenewald had confirmed discussions on coalitions in the province.
The FF Plus made it clear that it would not enter a coalition government with the ANC and EFF.
“As far as coalition talks are concerned, finalisation has been reached with a coalition government in the Cederberg municipality.
“Political parties will meet this week where a final wrap of coalition governments will be finalised.
“The coming week will be quite a hectic week as the metros will have to work and all other municipalities,” said Groenewald.
ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba confirmed that its senate has met and resolved to close the door on a proposal presented by the EFF.
The DA wants coalition partners in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro in the Eastern Cape, several municipalities in the Western Cape, the Gauteng metros and other municipalities in various provinces where the ANC lost support at the polls.
Party leader John Steenhuisen said it was encouraging to see growth in peri-urban and rural black areas, where a sample of over 3000 voters showed support doubling from 3.2% to 6.4% in this segment.
The opposition party achieved an outright win in KwaZulu-Natal's midlands municipality of uMngeni. Steenhuisen said the aim now is to transform uMngeni into the best-run municipality in the province, just as the DA-led government did in Kouga in the Eastern Cape and Midvaal in Gauteng.
Steenhuisen impressed that unstable coalitions are not up for discussion and assured coalition negotiations in hung municipalities come with non-negotiable principles.
Meanwhile EFF leader Julius Malema said the red berets have their eyes set on running Tshwane, while the ANC should govern Ekurhuleni and Herman Mashaba's ActionSA runs Johannesburg.
Mashaba said Gauteng coalitions are still ongoing. He revealed at the weekend that a coalition government with the EFF had been rejected. “I have personally written to the EFF and communicated our position. It was a letter that respectfully expressed our appreciation for their engagements and our reservations regarding their proposal.
“In the event of ActionSA’s involvement in a coalition government, our response also committed ActionSA to collaborate with any party with regard to the service delivery priorities of their constituencies in relation to the development of budgets.”
tarryn-leigh.solomons@inl.co.za
Political Bureau