Not long ago, some who believed in the staying power of the ANC regularly reminded the country that “it is cold outside the ANC”.
With the ANC failing to attain 50% plus one majority in the recent elections, the party has now come up with a series of coalitions and working arrangements the last of which is with ActionSA, which had vowed never to work with the criminal enterprise that is the ANC . On the surface, it seems “cold” outside the ANC’s working arrangements.
ActionSA was on Monday at pains to explain that it had not entered into a collation 'arrangement' with the ANC. It simply set out three conditions of its co-operation with the ANC, which ANC Gauteng chairperson Panyaza Lesufi swiftly met, paving the way for the non-coalition.
ActionSA chairman Michael Beaumont said: “Having explained what this arrangement is, it is necessary to explain what it is not. It is not a coalition arrangement. ActionSA will not enter the executive to co-govern, no coalition agreement will be signed and ActionSA’s support, even for a new mayor, will be provided only on the consideration of the merits of the matter.”
Beaumont was careful to ensure the nature of the agreement is not confused with a coalition. But the nature of this agreement is not too dissimilar to the political relationship between Rise Mzansi, which joined the Government of National Unity under President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC. Rise Mzansi leader Songezo Zibi is chairperson of the Select Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa), which has a mandate of holding our parliamentarians, especially the executive, accountable — much like ActionSA will do at the City of Joburg.
What’s the fuss about a name? In the end, the parties held meetings, discussed areas of co-operation, this being the operative word, and agreed to oust mayor Kabelo Gwamanda, who we agree should have been ousted long ago.
ActionSA protests too much about its “arrangement” not being a coalition because it is fully aware this goes against what it has said previously. After the outcome of the elections, ActionSA became embroiled in a bitter public spat with the DA, which had deserted its idea of a moonshot deal among opposition parties getting into bed with the ANC after the polls.
After a meeting of the senate, ActionSA said: “It was similarly resolved that ActionSA will continue to honour its commitment to be an alternative to the ANC. As such, ActionSA will not entertain any working relationship with the ANC at any level of government.”
When Ramaphosa was re-elected at the ANC’s conference at Nasrec in December 2022, Action SA said in a statement: “The only way South Africa will prosper is if we remove this criminal organisation from government...”
But this week, the same party is relieving the ANC of its tenuous arrangement with many small parties and helping what it calls the “criminal organisation” to take over the mayorship.
Beaumont argued at the Monday press conference that “we cannot sit back as ActionSA and allow a metro like Johannesburg to decline and decay the way it has and sit on our hands in Johannesburg by clinging to a principle that we will not work with other political parties. Change takes place in the political environment, and if we aren’t going to be dinosaurs, we too have to change and adapt to the changes happening in the political environment.”
It seems a long-winded way of saying it was foolish to prematurely preclude working with the ANC and that if the ANC is good for other former members of the multiparty charter and many others, why stay out alone in the cold?
The decision to co-operate with the ANC, while a major change of heart even as ActionSA stays clear of executive positions, is not surprising. It has become normal in our politics for leaders to flip-flop. Of those who were united in their spirited demonisation of the ANC ahead of the elections, ActionSA was the last one without any working arrangements.
