GOOD was not approaching the local government elections with fixed views about coalitions, party mayoral candidate for the City of Cape Town Brett Herron said on Thursday.
Herron said Good was ready to govern and provide constructive opposition.
“When the results are out, if coalition talks are necessary, they will be considered on a case-by-case basis, guided by our analysis of the wishes of voters,” he said.
Indications are that many municipalities are likely to be governed by coalitions.
The DA has given mixed messages on its views about coalition governments after the November 1 elections.
On Wednesday, while on the campaign trail in Mamelodi, DA leader John Steenhuisen said his party did not want to enter into a coalition with the ANC, which it wanted to have fewer than 50% of the votes.
This was after he was quoted last week as saying the DA was prepared to enter into talks with all the parties, except the EFF and ANC in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro.
ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte was reported as saying the ANC was preparing for coalition talks and had identified parties with which it was not willing to enter into agreements.
Herron noted the concession made by the DA and the ANC, apparently because they had not have not done enough to retain the support of their voters and were looking to post-election coalitions to cling to what remained of their diminishing power.
Herron said some coalitions in the country, such as in Nelson Mandela Bay, Tshwane and Johannesburg, proved to have been very poor because coalition partners did not view the outcome of elections as a directive from voters to get their act together, but as a challenge to outwit their coalition partners.
He said many cities and countries worldwide were successfully run by coalitions.
“They may not be first prize to political parties, but they clearly needn’t be as destructive as those of the dinosaurs have proven. Constructiveness is the missing link in our politics.”
Herron said vigorous contestation was the mark of a healthy democracy but once elections were over, governments were not just there for those who voted for them.
“Opposition parties aren’t just there to oppose everything in sight, regardless of merit; they should be looking to contribute, too.”
Herron said the Good party was a new party but its candidates for councils were not new to community leadership or politics.
“Many have joined Good in the search for a viable alternative after working with one or other of the dinosaurs in the past.”
He said South Africa’s political reboot was under way and the long season of taking voters for granted on the basis of historical divisions was over.
“Although the take-off may be bumpy, and the journey ahead is long, the transformation of our party political landscape is a positive step forward that all good people should embrace,” he said.
In September, Good party leader Patricia de Lille said that if there was a need for coalitions after the elections, the party would evaluate those case by case, on merit, and with proper regard for the wishes of those who had voted for it.
“We can’t predict the outcome of the elections because this is a time of great flux in our country. Our democracy is reawakening. Citizens are jumping off sinking old party ships and new ships are being launched,” De Lille said at their manifesto launch event.
She said the DA worked with the ANC in the Bitou municipality and against it in another municipality.
“Coalitions are about common purpose and those without common purpose and principle are doomed to fail, as the cities described above can attest,” said De Lille at the time, adding that her party would carry on its fight to stop corruption, whether in the government or on the opposition benches.
Political Bureau