With political parties gearing up for national and provincial elections in 2024, is the state of local coalition governments a sign of what’s to come?
With political parties gearing up for national and provincial elections in 2024, is the state of local coalition governments a sign of what’s to come?
When word on the parliamentary grapevine had EFF Deputy President Floyd Shivambu becoming National Assembly Speaker, many were dumbfounded. But this brought home the potential pitfalls of coalition-making — if required — after the 29 May elections.
While all of SA’s political parties are focused on the elections at the end of this month, some will soon start looking ahead to the 2029 elections, when there could be a much more fundamental change. If the latest polling is correct, the ANC may have an opportunity to weaken the EFF as a political threat forever.
Amid increasing speculation about whether a poor result for the ANC in next month’s election could mean the end of Cyril Ramaphosa’s presidency, it must be remembered that the question of Ramaphosa’s future is intertwined with the issue of possible coalitions.
On the Gauteng election campaign trail, the writing on the wall for the ANC-EFF post-election agreement is straightforward.
The ANC in Ekurhuleni has repeatedly argued that it must be given a chance to govern because it occupies the majority of the seats in the council and has the most experience in governance. On Thursday, it took back the mayoral chain, with Nkosindiphile Xhakaza elected unopposed as the new executive mayor.
In addition to the bodyguards, the politicians will receive 40 cars from the fleet of the Joburg Metropolitan Police Department, which is meant to control traffic, enforce by-laws and assist in crime prevention.
The UDM also singles out traditional leaders as deserving of special treatment and respect.
The IFP is fully behind the Multi-Party Charter to get the ANC out of government in next month’s elections. But if no side clinches a majority, a government of national unity is possible, says IFP leader Velenkosini Hlabisa.
The results are important considering the possibility – or perhaps likelihood – that SA’s next national government may be a coalition.
With uMkhonto Wesizwe’s contestation of the general election now a legal certainty, and the publication of the parties’ candidate lists, this is a good time to assess whether this poll will be significantly different from those of the past.
No party is expected to win a majority in KwaZulu-Natal and DA premier candidate Chris Pappas believes voters have seen what his party has done in uMngeni and will back the DA, giving its Multi-Party Charter a chance to lead the province.
With many a poll predicting that Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto Wesizwe party could win a not insignificant share of the vote on 29 May, there is a strong possibility of a new Parliament inhabited by both MK and the EFF — and things get especially interesting if MK vaults into third position above Julius Malema’s Red Berets.
No one is coming to save you. Active citizenry is necessary now more than ever as coalition politics are likely to take centre stage at provincial and national levels, panellists told The Gathering Twenty Twenty-Four on Thursday.
Ekurhuleni and Cape Town were the only two metros in South Africa to receive a clean audit in 2021/22. Ekurhuleni lost that status in 2022/23 and the city’s leading coalition partners, the ANC and EFF, have come to blows as their relationship has broken down.
A new survey shows ANC foreign policy and weak leadership are turning off voters as the DA and Jacob Zuma’s MK party make solid gains with two months to go before the election.
The Friedrich Naumann Foundation hosted its Freedom Dialogue on Wednesday, where former Johannesburg mayor Mpho Phalatse unpacked the challenges and opportunities facing coalitions with Daily Maverick senior journalist Queenin Masuabi.
Coalitions following the 2024 elections could depend on just a few seats’ difference, with much depending on provincial party political support, Krutham analyst Peter Attard Montalto told the Cape Town Press Club on Monday.
Opposition parties Al Jama-ah and the Patriotic Alliance want the DA removed from power in the Western Cape and are willing to work with the ANC to this end. However, to stand a chance, they need support for the DA to plummet while their share of the vote increases dramatically.
In post-independence Africa, coalition governments have produced the highest economic growth rates and highest levels of peace. Dominant liberation movements, military, religious and single-leader governments have produced catastrophic failures causing state collapse, civil wars and kleptocracy.
The DA in the City of Johannesburg will lodge another court challenge against Floyd Brink’s reappointment as city manager after its application against him was struck off the roll due to a lack of urgency.
A coalition government at the national level appears to be a strong possibility, with the latest Ipsos poll measuring political party support showing the ANC’s continued decline.
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