South Africa: ANC must negotiate nearly 100 councils without a majority by 22 November
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Business Day (South Africa)
South Africa has nearly 100 municipal councils without an absolute majority in the wake of the local elections, compared with 70 after the 2021 vote, and parties must conclude their power-sharing agreements before the legal deadline of 22 November, Business Day reports. The negotiating teams of the ruling ANC and the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) have been formed at national level and are ready to step in, primarily in the eight major metropolitan areas and the other large councils.
The two parties will have to settle two preliminary questions: the room for manoeuvre left to local elected officials vis-à-vis the national leaderships, and whether to enter into global agreements in which one party supports another's mayoral candidate in one council in exchange for equivalent support elsewhere. Mdumiseni Ntuli, a member of the ANC's national executive committee, said on Thursday during a Political Arena round table that leaders of his party considered Helen Zille, the DA's candidate for mayor of Johannesburg, arrogant for presenting herself as a "messiah" come to save a city at the end of its tether — which, he said, makes it less likely that the government of national unity (GNU) formed with the DA will be replicated at local level. Mr Ntuli added that the ANC should ask itself whether this power-sharing with the DA had cost it votes.
The 22 November deadline follows the 2 November municipal elections, in which the ANC won 32% of the vote, its worst result, and in which the major cities fell to coalitions still to be negotiated.],[{
