Political analyst Professor Sipho Seepe says that there is a need to understand that the DA and the EFF have not formed a coalition, but rather, a partnership.
He says the aim is to enable them to carry out the will of the people, even if it was at the expense of the ANC.
Seepe was reacting to the developments in the past week, that saw the ANC unceremoniously losing power to the DA in the City of Johannesburg.
“For both the EFFand the DA and other parties, they felt that the ANC had been punished, so to return it to government it would be undermining the will of the people. So, you see a ganging up against the ANC, but the DA was very clear that to bring back a party that had lost, that had been in power for a number of years, would be undermining the will of the people. This is what people need to understand that there is no coalition between the EFF and the DA.”
New Johannesburg mayor
On Monday, the DA’s Dr Mpho Phalatse was voted-in as the new City of Johannesburg mayor.
Phalatse got 144 of the 270 possible votes in the City. The ANC’s mayoral candidate, Mpho Moerane got 121 votes.
Phalatse said her election signals that democracy in South Africa is maturing, with multi-party governments becoming the order of the day.
As the first female Mayor for the country’s economic hub, Phalatse said it’s now time for the citizens of the city to have access to basic services, irrespective of their political affiliation.
Phalatse was cheered by the DA members in the council, as the announcement was made by the newly elected Speaker, who is also a DA member, Vasco Da Gama.
