Unite for Change won’t contest the local government elections as an alliance. The Good party, Bosa and Rise Mzansi were members of the alliance, with leaders, from left, Good’s Brett Herron, Rise’s Vuyisa Ramokgopa, Bosa’s Mmusi Maimane, Good’s Patricia de Lille, Bosa’s Nobuntu Hlabo-Webster and Rise’s Songezo Zibi. (Photo: X / @BuildOneSA) The Unite for Change coalition of three progressive small parties has faltered, flailing after less than six months.
Rise Mzansi, Build One South Africa (Bosa) and the Good party will not contest the local government election as the Unite for Change alliance, as announced in October 2025. The three in total hold just eight seats, five nationally and three provincially.
But despite being minions, they have a big voice. The leaders Songezo Zibi (Rise), Maimane (Bosa – he’s also the former DA leader) and Patricia de Lille (Good) have important roles inside and outside formal politics.
In the cauldron and speed of politics, the three organisations did not sufficiently cohere to form a union.
“You need high trust, good faith and constant attention,” said an official from one of the three parties, speaking on condition of anonymity.
While they had agreed to field a candidate as Joburg mayor, in the end, the talks did not get over the line. The race for Johannesburg will be the centrepiece of the local government elections, which must be held between 2 November and 31 January 2026.
The three may sign co-operation and non-competition agreements ahead of the local government polls to give one another space to grow, and talks will continue. The parties found it difficult to integrate differing cultures and systems, even though each is a relatively new political formation.
They had agreed on three priorities and could co-operate on these, said officials who briefed Daily Maverick. The three priorities are: safety, modernising cities through tech and improving the calibre of leaders in local councils. Each party has attracted high-calibre young leaders.
The United for Change alliance can be characterised as constitutional and progressive in its positioning – they aligned with constitutional values and are not populist in their economic promises nor in right-wing positions, like being anti-migrant or socially conservative.
Populists rising
On the other hand, a populist coalition that has formed in Gauteng, which mirrors the coalition that runs Johannesburg, could gain ground.
Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has coalesced the ANC-EFF-IFP-Rise-PA and, possibly, MK, into a governing unit.
This coalition has the imprimatur of Deputy President Paul Mashatile, who has in the past railed against the DA’s double identity of being in government while retaining a robust opposition philosophy to grow its base. Natasha Marrian reports in Financial Mail that Mashatile endorsed the new shape of the coalition. The SABC reported that Mashatile made the comments at a Good Friday talk.
/file/attachments/2990/COALITIONELECTIONS1_603930.png "Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s Gauteng coalition now has a majority after the EFF joined. (Graphic: Kevin Momberg)")
A so-called black caucus coalition has great resonance in the ANC NEC, where relationships with the DA are being tested – especially by Helen Zille’s hi-jinks campaign in Johannesburg, where her swims in potholes and canoeing on flooded roads is exposing ANC governance deficiencies in viral social media posts.
“ANC-EFF co-operation is quite common and not unusual,” says Professor Susan Booysen, who manages the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (Mistra) coalition barometer, South Africa’s pre-eminent and current study of power-sharing arrangements.
“I see this in the context of the ANC wanting to keep its bread buttered on both sides,” she said, referring to the party’s national coalition with the DA and other parties.
She said that the Gauteng ANC culture was more overtly populist, but only in rhetoric and not in practice. This was a political culture “which highlighted the party’s role as a revolutionary movement whilst finding targets that resembled the evils of the past to mask the disappointments of the present”.
In Johannesburg, an ANC-EFF-PA-led coalition is only radical in theory, but not in practice, where the poorest citizens suffer the most as service hits the skids, as Daily Maverick reported. DM