Opinion

Calling the shots but not accepting any responsibility

EFF support in ruling major metros has come at a cost. The ANC refused the poisoned chalice; the DA should have insisted on a formal coalition pact

02 September 2018 - 00:00 By CAIPHUS KGOSANA

Two years ago, the EFF leadership met the ANC leadership at Luthuli House. The ANC had just suffered humiliating losses in the local government elections and was at risk of losing the capital city, Tshwane, and the economic hub of Johannesburg.
In a cruel twist, the only party that could save the metros the ANC had been running since the first local government elections was led by two individuals it had expelled in disgrace four years earlier. The irony wasn't lost on EFF leader Julius Malema and his comrade-in-arms Floyd Shivambu. They finally had the winning ace up their sleeves and were about to play it.
At that meeting, the EFF made a number of impossible demands in return for support to help the ANC keep the metros. Use our 6% national support to augment your numbers in parliament and change the constitution to expropriate land without compensation, nationalise the mines and banks, legislate for free education, scrap e-tolls and erase Die Stem from the national anthem. Then came the killer blow … remove Jacob Zuma as president of SA.
Not surprisingly, the ANC declined this offer, which effectively meant the EFF deciding all its key policies and dictating its leadership choices. The EFF turned to the DA, which needed its numbers to secure a majority in Johannesburg and Tshwane and install its own executive mayors. It is not clear what concessions the DA made in those negotiations in 2016, but as Tshwane mayor Solly Msimanga survived a motion of no confidence by the skin of his teeth on Thursday, it was evident that the EFF still has the winning hand, and knows when to play it.
CONTROL COMES AT A PRICE
For the DA, however, desperation to retain control of the two key metros comes at a huge cost. The manner in which the EFF lends its electoral support is strongly biased in its favour. Because it refuses to enter into a formal coalition, it gets to sit on the grandstand while you sweat on the fields. But unlike sports fans who can only express their frustrations from afar, the EFF takes on the role of a shadow government that demands consultation at every level, even though it doesn't accept collective accountability.
This is not just consultation for the sake of it; it is joint decision-making on policy, key appointments and sometimes on procurement. It's an open secret that the mayors of Johannesburg and Tshwane cannot appoint key personnel without getting the EFF's OK first. If the red berets object, the candidate falls by the wayside.
The EFF has to agree to the mayors' choice of members of the mayoral committee and, most important, gets to edit the city budget before it is presented to the council. Those close to the mayors talk in the corridors about how the EFF insists on going through the budget meticulously, removing any items it does not agree with.
In Tshwane, soon-to-be-suspended city manager Moeketsi Mosola is said to have been recommended by the EFF to Msimanga. Aware of the shadowy power the EFF holds, Mosola is said to have been petulant from day one, apparently reminding Msimanga at every turn just who calls the shots. That made him a powerful manager who was accountable only to himself and those who put him there. As relations got strained, a fed-up Msimanga eventually put his foot down, a move that might yet cost him his office.
In Nelson Mandela Bay, the EFF has always been unhappy that it fell just short of playing kingmaker. When deposed mayor Athol Trollip started fighting with his deputy, Mongameli Bobani, now the mayor, it played right into the EFF's hands and those of the opportunistic ANC. It took a dissenting vote from within the DA caucus for Trollip to finally fall, after numerous failed attempts, and even that move could be overturned on judicial review.
The EFF is happy with Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba, even though he is the ideological opposite of everything it stands for. That is because Mashaba dances to their tune. When the EFF demanded the insourcing of security guards and other workers, Mashaba implemented this almost immediately. When the city attempted to increase rates to levels the EFF was unhappy with, Mashaba backtracked at the first objection from his shadow coalition partners. He will remain safe as long as he knows where his orders come from.
But there is growing unhappiness in the DA about this arrangement. Some members are quietly calling for a withdrawal from all metros governed through this shadow coalition with the EFF. The argument is that unlike Cape Town, where it has an outright majority, the DA is not really in power in the two other metros and defers too much to the EFF. That means it cannot effectively implement its own policies, making governing difficult.
What did the DA expect? Did it seriously think the EFF would just lend it votes and then sit quietly in the opposition benches without expecting anything in return? What the DA should have done is insist on a formal coalition in which the parties split important roles such as membership of mayoral committees and formalise a governance pact acceptable to both. The EFF is passionate about insourcing and the DA could have made that concession in a formal pact. Yes, there would have been disagreements, but they could be resolved through negotiations and concessions.
EACH PARTY EQUALLY RESPONSIBLE
What a formal pact does is make each party equally responsible for governance failures and successes. The EFF would also get the chance of proving to South Africans that it has the ability to govern; that way it can plead for an outright majority to run its own municipality in future. What it cannot do, however, is govern from the shadows, threatening its coalition partners with removal if they do not toe the line.
In hindsight, it was wise of the ANC not to accede to the EFF's demands back in 2016. Though some ANC leaders in these metros are so desperate to regain control that they are willing to sell their souls to the EFF, the ANC nationally and in some of the provinces chooses to proceed with caution. In Gauteng, the line is that the ANC would lend its support to depose DA-led councils but not put up candidates hoping for support from the EFF.
That way, it forces a hung metro, which goes into administration and ultimately special elections to decide a new government. The thinking is that Ramaphoria will carry the ANC back to power.
It might be far-fetched, but it is much better than the poisoned carrot the EFF puts on the table...

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