Government to call 'national dialogue' to deal with 'loosely arranged' coalitions

The government is inviting all political parties to share their inputs with the Presidency and the department of cooperative governance which are working on a framework to manage coalition governments.  

“We will be inviting all political parties represented in parliament to the (national) dialogue on the principles of coalition governments across all spheres of government while we are urgently attending to the issue of dysfunctional municipalities as a result of the current loosely arranged coalition governments.  

“All political parties are invited to start depositing inputs and views to the technical committee led by the Presidency and Cogta to help develop the framework for coalition governments, which will subsequently lead to the development of legislation,” said deputy president Paul Mashatile.  

He told MPs at the National Assembly on Thursday afternoon that the government was concerned about the “loosely arranged” coalition governments.  

“At local government we saw this happening and we developed a proper framework and things went haywire, so I think any party that is worth its salt will have a vision and prepare. We are saying in the event that we end up not winning, then we are looking at what kind of approach do we take,” he said.

He said he acknowledged the introduction of Private Member’s Bill on coalition governments, which will ultimately see legislation to help to manage coalition governments. 

And although going into coalitions with smaller parties was not a favorite for the ANC, the party needed to plan for the future, he said. 

Mashatile was answering a question asked by DA chief whip Siviwe Gwarube, who asked whether in the absence of an existing legislative framework to stabilise coalition governments, the government will support the proposed suite of legislation that have been published for public comment aimed at stabilising coalition governments. 

Bearing in mind that the country is going to the polls next year, Mashatile said the national dialogue should be convened in the next two months. 

“I would like to reiterate that SALGA did develop a framework for the coalition. We did observe in our previous response that the existing framework has weaknesses, and as a result, we committed to convene a dialogue to discuss and develop a coherent coalition framework.”  

Mashatile told Gwarube to “not to put the cart before the horse” and instead to bring the bill to him for consideration. “We are not against legislation, there is already a tactical min mac that is busy with that, so my office will write to you and within two weeks we must get this write. In that dialogue you are going to make an input that is in your bill.”

Asked about the failing coalitions, Mashatile said by coming up with the national framework, the government wants to ensure that it deals with the instability at the local sphere. 

“The approach to coalition at local government level has not been underpinned by solid principles, so you end up with people really fighting for spoils basically.” 

The current regime of coalitions in South Africa is “shaky” and national government needs to intervene, he said.  

Asked whether the government was keen for legislation because the ANC was beginning to lose power, Mashatile said “coalitions is not an ANC favorite. We are going to campaign next year to win. I will meet you on the ground.”  

The ANC is discussing coalitions because it wants to be realistic about the political tragectory, he added. 

He said the ANC is not begging “parliament to support coalitions quickly because we are losing, no. We are not. We do not want to come up with legislation that keeps losers in power.”  

The party that wins majority, should govern, he said, adding that “we are not desperate.”

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