New analysis: Parties will need to budget for some goodwill

DA federal executive chairman James Selfe flew into Johannesburg this weekend to give guidance to the party caucus in the city council as crunch time arrives for councils in which opposition groups co-operate to keep the ANC from governing.

Unlike the Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay metros, where the DA's co-operation with other opposition groupings has been relatively plain sailing, insiders say there is grumbling and discord in Johannesburg.

Some DA members are committed to working with the party's partners, but others believe the EFF is ideologically too different to the DA, citing racial slurs by the EFF leadership and the party's views on nationalisation and the expropriation of land .

However, the DA leadership is as committed as the EFF leadership to making the co-operative agreement work, so DA councillors are expected to be told by Selfe to be open to EFF budget proposals as long as they fit in with DA principles.

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The municipal budget cycle is about to begin. In a test for opposition unity across ideological and party-political divides, almost 30 opposition-led councils must thrash out budgets over the next few weeks, or risk being put under administration by ANC governments at provincial and national level.

All eyes will be on the EFF, which has promised not to pass budgets that do not conform to its municipal election manifesto.

If the budgets are not passed, it would create the opportunity for the ANC-dominated national and provincial governments to intervene and in effect take over such councils.

The ANC has already shown an appetite for placing councils under its own provincial administration, publicly threatening to do so after disruptions of council meetings in Tshwane.

The opposition co-operation partners do not have time on their side, as the schedule for all of South Africa's municipalities is tight:

• Before January 28, the municipal manager must decide whether an adjustments budget is necessary;

• By February 28, adjustments budgets must be approved by councils. Consequential amendments have to be made to service delivery and budget implementation plans;

• Before the end of March, draft budgets and integrated development plans have to be tabled in councils and approved for public participation in April; and

• The end of May is the deadline for budgets and integrated development plans, with public comments, to be approved in councils.

There is still opportunity until the end of June to debate and amend proposed budgets and integrated development plans.

block_quotes_start Generally, co-operation has been good, although we sometimes find the expectations of our partners to be somewhat disjointed

Differences exist between large opposition parties, but there is also a commitment to making the process work. Some parties view the local government process as a dress rehearsal for trying to jointly unseat the ANC in the 2019 general election.

EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu said EFF councillors had begun tabling issues they wanted to see addressed in budgets.

"The EFF will vote against anything we disagree with, having always tabled an alternative.

"The ruling grouping, whether it be the Inkatha Freedom Party, DA or Forum 4 Service Delivery, will have to take it into account if they want their budget passed," said Shivambu.

The EFF would be pragmatic and was committed to solving differences at a local level, he said.

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"We do not foresee that it would be necessary to escalate differences to a provincial and national level. At the same time, we do not want to see mayors fall unnecessarily. All options will be exhausted first," said Shivambu.

Selfe said the DA had thus far found all its co-operation partners, including the EFF, to be solid under pressure, which he said boded well for opposition parties in the 2019 election.

"The budget process has not fully started yet.

"In practice, we will expect the DA caucus leader to deal with all co-operative partners, including the EFF," said Selfe.

"Generally, co-operation has been good, although we sometimes find the expectations of our partners to be somewhat disjointed.

"Pragmatism is important, as well as the escalation of problems to a provincial and national level if they cannot be overcome," said Selfe.

The IFP's chief negotiator, Narend Singh, said problems, should they occur, could be solved on different levels.