Political analyst Ebrahim Fakir says political parties will have to show great levels of maturity as coalition talks get under way. Parties failed to secure an outright majority in 70 councils nationally.
In Gauteng, the City of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metros are all hung, with the ANC receiving the majority of votes.
Breakdown of hung councils:
In KwaZulu-Natal, there are 21 hung councils with the ANC losing its outright majority.
Fakir says parties must focus on what is best for the constituency when going into coalitions, rather than making inroads ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
“You could trade off how you are going to be inclusive or what principles you are going to use to construct government and it becomes easier to negotiate those. Though it becomes difficult when in some other of the 70 municipalities outside of the metros you need other parties to help you to govern and those parties might then say, oh no, you decided to go into a coalition with the DA, why should I help you out? If they can reinforce agreements perhaps how you would distribute positions, it’s gonna be one of the fundamental negotiation positions, so we have to be realistic about it.”
LGE 2021 | Discussion on coalition politics in SA: Ebrahim Fakir & Terry Tselane:
