LISTEN: Coalition discussions an uphill battle, says political analyst
With the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) set to announce the
final local government election results on Thursday evening, coalitions are the
talk of the town.
More than 60 wards are without a majority, and parties like the African National Congress (ANC) and the Democratic Alliance (DA) will now have to start lobbying smaller parties in a bid to secure a governing council.
Political analyst Professor Amanda Gouws says the political parties refusing to work together makes for difficult politics.
“ANC said it won’t work with parties that are racist, which I think they referred to the DA, the DA said they will not under any circumstances work with the EFF so that makes for real difficult politics.
“There are no rules around the formation of coalition, it pretty much dependent on the goodwill of parties to work with each other and we’ve not seen a very successful coalition government in South African in the past 5 years.”
In recent years there were various problems with coalitions in metros such as Nelson Mandela Bay, Tshwane and Johannesburg.
Gouws explains the failures are an indication of the difficulty that lies ahead.
“If you can’t make it work in the metros, I’m not sure how you will make it work in the smaller councils, I think its going to be an uphill battle.”
LISTEN TO PROFESSOR GOUWS BELOW:
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