The dramatic political events that took place on Monday and Tuesday in Gauteng metro municipalities represent a significant change to the party political landscape, three years before the next round of national and provincial elections in 2024.
The once-dominant governing party, the ANC, lost its grip on key and strategic metro councils in a stunning coup by the DA.
It was a hostile takeover orchestrated by the EFF of Julius Malema and ActionSA of Herman Mashaba.
In a surprise move, the two parties shocked the nation by lending their support to the DA, voting in favour of all its mayoral candidates in Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni, metros whose wellbeing is critical to the economy of the country. But where the ANC is concerned, these developments do not surprise, as the writing has long been on the wall, with the party first losing outright control of the same metros in the local government in 2016 and again this year when voters once more refused to give them direct majority rule.
This meant the ANC and other political parties had to engage in rounds of separate negotiations with the aim of forming coalition governments.
The DA had given up on its chances to govern Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane when its negotiations with other parties collapsed last week and it declined to support Mashaba to be Joburg mayor and the DA to take Tshwane.
But not even the blockbuster movie script-writers could have imagined what would hit the ANC when the councils sat on Monday.
The ANC, on the other hand, was aware that its position in these metros, ahead of the council elections on Monday and Tuesday, would remain precarious after the EFF walked out of talks following failure to reach consensus on sticky points.
That meant everything stayed up in the air when councils sat this week.
But not even the blockbuster movie scriptwriters could have imagined what would hit the ANC when the councils sat on Monday.
This after the EFF “imposed” itself on the DA by voting for its mayoral candidates in Tshwane, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni, with no courting at all from the party led by John Steenhuisen.
It was a ruthless Malema playing a shrewd political game by being spiteful to the ANC after it rejected some of his outlandish demands during their negotiations.
It’s fascinating politics. But it also amounts to a recipe for unstable government in these key municipalities at a time when voters are yearning for efficient and reliable service delivery after years of poor performance by the ANC.
In this random act of support, the DA and its reluctant bedfellows are now in minority governments that are not backed up or informed by agreements on key issues and principles.
To pass budgets for service delivery at these municipalities, the DA mayors in the Gauteng metros will need the support of the EFF and ActionSA, which remains unguaranteed in the absence of a properly thrashed out formal agreement.
This calls into question the sustainability of the metro councils that have just been formed. They could collapse at any moment because they simply exist on the whims of political figures such as Mashaba and Malema.
It’s a fact that not even Steenhuisen could run away from on Tuesday.
“What this means is that these governments could very well be short-lived. But whether they last five years or five days, I can assure you that the DA will use its time in office entirely in service of the residents of these metros,” he said in a statement.
The DA-EFF marriage in Tshwane and Johannesburg ended in messy divorce after the 2016 municipal elections, so it will not come as a surprise if we hear of yet another break-up in the foreseeable future.
But as for the ANC, this week has proved the once-domineering party of luminaries such as Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo is no longer untouchable.
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