The ANC in Gauteng will be afforded a last chance to convince its national leadership to give it a thumbs up to enter into a coalition which would unseat the DA in the City of Tshwane.
TimesLIVE Premium understands Gauteng secretary TK Nciza and chair Panyaza Lesufi were sent back to the drawing board when they presented their case to the national working committee (NWC) on why the party should enter into a coalition with ActionSA to unseat the DA in the city.
According to two insiders with knowledge of the events, the province's ambitions for the capital city hinge on whether it will be able to convince the secretary-general's office the city is financially stable for the ANC to take over.
The insiders said while the provincial leaders made a compelling argument during an NWC meeting that it would benefit the ANC and its constituents for the party to take back the city from its government of national unity partners they were unable to answer questions about whether the city was financially stable.
However, Gauteng ANC spokesperson Lesego Makhubela refuted the claims, saying faceless sources are not members belonging to a renewed ANC.
“We find this story deeply unfortunate, repugnant and to the extreme malicious, the faceless sources are without doubt not members belonging to a renewed ANC as this story is not true.
“As a matter of fact where we rescued both the city of Ekurhuleni and Johannesburg from the DA and its coalition partners, we did so because of the collapse of its finances and the continued deterioration of service delivery to ratepayers and communities especially historic black and coloured communities. It will be interesting that the faceless sources of your publication seem to suggest that we only rescue municipalities on the basis of a budget surplus, that will be tantamount to hunting with salt which the ANC in Gauteng rejects with the contempt it deserves,” said Makhubela.
The ANC has already tabled a motion of no confidence against Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink, which is expected to be debated on Thursday next week. The city council is led by the DA in a coalition which includes the IFP, ACDP, Freedom Front Plus, Defenders of the People and ActionSA. Brink would need ActionSA to maintain his position.
The insiders said the DA has been meeting ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula in hopes of clinching a deal that would ensure it continues to lead the city.
“There is no decision on Tshwane for now. What was decided was the provincial leaders should present to the secretary-general this week. What we want is to understand the finances of the municipality.
“What we must guard against is rushing to control municipalities and metros when some of them are bankrupt.”
Another insider said there was apprehension on the part of national leaders to approve a takeover in Tshwane as the ANC looks towards the 2026 local government elections.
“The problem is that 18 months down the line the voters will want us to account for what we have inherited when it's a shell. Some in the NWC have argued we should rather wait for the elections because when we inherit a shell we have a majority of political parties who suddenly want to support us on the issue of mayors.
“This decision may not be strategic. The mayor's chain has become about appearances when it should be about form. We must have substance and the only way we can do that is to make proper assessments,” they said.
The national leader added the provincial leaders had a “serious difficulty” in responding to the matter of the metro's finances. TimesLIVE Premium understands the Tshwane matter has strained relations between the national and provincial leaders.
One provincial insider said Luthuli House was sidelining them by negotiating with the DA without their input.
This is about the people of Tshwane and those people have been outside for the past eight years. There is no pro-poor budget, our communities have not been serviced and that is our focus as the ANC
— TK Nciza, Gauteng provincial secretary
Mbalula recently told journalists the ANC would no longer join any coalition that would not serve the party and the interests of the people.
“That is the stance we have taken. We will join any coalition and work with everybody as long as the people of SA will benefit from the point of view of stability. We are tired of mayors changing week in and week out. We will not be part of any arrangement that does not guarantee stability,” he said.
“The ANC working with the province and nationally has reflected on these matters and this is overarching in everything we do. We have one year to go to the elections and municipalities must deliver for the people in our constituencies. We control a number of constituencies in Tshwane and everywhere else. As much as we don't control the executive, our constituencies need to be serviced in terms of a budget that is for the working class and different areas.”
TimesLIVE Premium understands the ANC and DA have been interacting nationally about a deal that would see the two parties sharing power in all three metros.
However, the DA’s biggest headache is the ANC’s provincial leadership, which is said to be against the coalition.
The province butted heads with the DA during the formation of a government of provincial unity, which resulted in a collapse of negotiations.
Acting ANC national spokesperson Zuko Godlimpi said the party has been transparent in discussing possibilities with all political parties represented in affected councils.
“This includes Tshwane. ActionSA, DA, EFF and other political formations are all engaging the ANC on proposals for how best to stabilise Tshwane and improve the performance of the municipality.”
He added the ANC will get to that agreement with whichever party on the basis of a comprehensive governance framework with specific service delivery outcomes.
ActionSA, which is said to be in the running to secure the mayoral chain should the province get its way, has already announced a divorce of its union with the DA in its Tshwane coalition.
In May, ratings agency Moody’s announced the city had retained its status and upgraded its outlook from negative to stable.
Despite this improvement, Ratings Afrika’s index of municipalities’ financial sustainability for the 2023 fiscal year saw Tshwane maintaining its position as the second-worst performing metro, but said it had made improvements.
The auditor-general flagged the city for overstating its employee-related costs by more than R415m, which includes close to R2m paid towards salaries of staff who had resigned from the municipality, IOL reported.
The city has been drowning in debt and failing to pay creditors, including Eskom.
Business Day reported the metro received a warning from the JSE that it was on the brink of suspending its debt raising instruments after it failed to provide annual financial statements.
Government entities such as state-owned enterprises and municipalities issue bonds or debt on the JSE to raise money for large projects such as building roads and other critical infrastructure meant to improve service delivery. Failure to abide by the JSE listing requirements could see their instruments suspended, dealing a blow to their reputation in the capital markets, the report said.
Brink said the city has set up a bold plan to turn around its ailing finances by increasing revenue and reducing expenses by R1bn a month.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said the ANC needed to stabilise local government and deal with political challenges which gave rise to unstable coalitions.
He said a similar process to what the party had done in Johannesburg may be applied in other metros.
Nciza previously told journalists the negotiations for a coalition in Tshwane were about the people. He was confident the ANC would have made a decision on whether it would pursue a coalition arrangement in the city before the debate over its motion of no confidence against Brink.
“This is about the people of Tshwane and those people have been outside for the past eight years. There is no pro-poor budget, our communities have not been serviced and that is our focus as the ANC,” he said.
ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba said this week that should it fail to secure an alternative coalition government it will confidently be part of, the party will rejoin the opposition benches in Tshwane.
“The decision to consider an alternative municipal coalition government for Tshwane dictated by the multiparty post-electoral reality in SA and the many instances of mismanagement we have witnessed in Tshwane has not been taken lightly, without deep introspection and deliberation by ActionSA’s senate, our party’s highest decision-making body. It is a decision we’re prepared to defend because we believe what we propose will be a better alternative to abuses of trust, details of which we shall expose at the right time.”
DA federal council chair Helen Zille did not respond to questions.
Editor's note: The story has been updated to add Makhubela's comment.
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