North West local municipal councils expected to elect political office bearers

Eighteen North West local municipal councils are expected to convene meetings to elect political office bearers on Monday.

They include mayors, speakers and chief whip of councils with municipal managers expected to preside over the meetings.

It is however not clear yet who will govern in the provinces three hung councils.

The convening of municipal councils follow the recent local government elections.

Since then, political parties have been engaging each other in talks with the aim of entering into coalitions in three of the provinces municipalities where the African National Congress (ANC) could not secure an outright majority.

The video below is shining the spotlight on coalitions:

They are the JB Marks Local Municipality in Potchefstroom, Lekwa-Teemane Local Municipality in Bloemhof and Christiana areas, as well as Rustenburg Local Municipality.

The biggest parties in the province, have already indicated their unwillingness to enter into any coalition agreement with the ANC.

One such party is the Democratic Alliance (DA).

The party’s elections head, Chris Hattingh says, “The Democratic Alliance will not go into any coalition in the hung municipalities in the North West province. We certainly cannot get the ANC solely responsible for the collapse of local government in the North West province a life raft. The DA will continue to be the best opposition that [we] can be. [This] is the mandate that we [have] received from our voters.”

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) maintains that its doors are still open for any party that has an interest to engage it on coalitions.

Economic Freedom Fighters provincial secretary Papiki Babuile, however says so far only one of the smaller parties in Rustenburg has engaged them.

“So far we only had one small party in Rustenburg which has approached us. The national leadership of the EFF will give guidance on what should be the way forward on other municipalities that include Lekwa Teemane and JB Marks,” explains Babuile.

Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) Provincial Deputy leader, De Wet Nel, reiterated his party’s position that they will remain an opposition party.

“In the North West, there is no coalition government that we will be part of. Although in some of the municipalities, we might consider to put our vote towards a coalition which will benefit our voters,” adds De Wet Nel.

However, the ANC in the province remains confident that with coalition agreements already entered into with some of the smaller parties, it will govern all the municipalities.

The ANC’s Interim provincial committee (IPC) coordinator, Hlomani Chauke says, “We expect councils to convene. We expect to see the appointment of the speaker, the mayor and many others in terms of what is expected from councils. We are confident because the partnership we have entered in, is a very committed partnership.”

Analysis on parties coalition talks:

Local government expert, Professor Barry Hanyane, believe the ANC has no choice but to form coalition if it still wants to be in power.

“It’s the ANC that is facing the barrel of a party in disarray, a party in crisis. Crisis represented here by what is happening Luthuli House, and they have no choice but to swallow [their] pride. The whole syndrome of big brother mentality has come and gone. It’s time now to face reality,” explains Hanyane.

Political analyst, Professor Andre Duvenhage, says the outcome of the election results necessitated coalition government.

“The voters have spoken and the results bring us to a point where we need coalitions. Now coalition politics is a relative new thing for the majority of municipalities implicated here.”

After the 2016 local government elections, the ANC could also not get an outright majority in the Rustenburg Local Municipality.

They ultimately managed to get their mayoral candidate Mpho Khunou elected by obtaining 46 seats out of an 89 seat council.

It remains to be seen whether the ANC in the province, will this time be able to retain its power to govern all municipalities.

Parties urged to work together

Gauteng Co-operative Governance MEC, Lebogang Maile, says he wishes political parties could work together to ensure that they deliver quality services to the people.

Maile was briefing members of the media on coalitions following the local government elections.

Voter turnout was at historic lows in this year’s municipal elections – with outright wins evading the major parties in many areas.

This has necessitated talks between parties – which have encountered numerous obstacles ahead of the Tuesday deadline to form administrations.

Maile says politicians will be punished if they fail the voters.

In the video below, Maile addresses the media: