Speech by the African National Congress Secretary General, Comrade Fikile Mbalula, on the occasion of the National Dialogue on Coalition Governments, Cape Town, 4-5th August 2023

7 August 2023

The African National Congress takes the opportunity to welcome this National Dialogue on Coalition Governments. It is as an important occasion to discuss and find sufficient consensus on measures that should be taken to address the intolerable degree and untenable situation of instability, disruption of governance and service delivery in coalitions running our municipalities.

It is our view as the ANC that a legislative framework should be put in place to regulate coalition governments to safeguard democracy, sustainable development, governance and service delivery.

Having observed the disturbing developments in hung municipalities and metros, affected communities and citizens would have good reason to believe that collectively as political parties, we are only interested in power politics instead of addressing their needs.

This Dialogue should, through a sufficient degree of consensus, prove that we are truly and genuinely committed to stable, functional, developmental and accountable government.

We must therefore strive to come out of this Dialogue with a framework that will lay a basis for new legislation. Such agreed framework must help restore our people's confidence in our Constitutional democracy.

Let me state from the onset, that as the ANC, we are not here to talk about what should happen after the 2024 elections. We are deeply concerned about the coalition chaos and instability in municipalities. This is what the regulatory framework should help to resolve.

Coalitions, in their current free-floating institutional set-up, are not working for the people.

They are not held together by any transparent safeguards, and function as palace manoeuvres for back-wheeling and dealing. This makes them prone to collapse and, more worryingly, a tendency to disrupt the processes of govemance for effective delivery of services to the people.

In line with the Freedom Charter, the South African democratic movement continues to espouse the vision of a people-centred and people-driven participatory democracy in which "the people shall govern", "the people shall share in the countrvs wealth", "the land shall be shared among those who work it", "all shall enjoy equal human rights", etc., as some the key defining features of our democracy.

The health of a democracy should be measured by the well-being of citizens as well as the stability and ability of democratic institutions to serve the people, even when there are changes after every five-year electoral cycle.

The principles that we are tabling as the African National Congress seek to remedy the instability, disruptions and dysfunctionality of coalition governments in our municipalities.

There could be some who think that coalitions are a reflection of a maturing democracy, whilst others may think it is evidence of a failing democracy. On the contrary, we believe coalition governance is neither good nor intrinsically bad. It is their degree of effect on the functionality of governance systems in a given context that determines whether coalitions are good or bad.

In democratic rationale, coalitions reflect split public opinion and a degree of political fragmentation where no party has been given a clear mandate to govern on its own. This is currently the case in 80 municipalities across the country.

The chaos, instability, dysfunctionality and collapse of service delivery in coalition municipalities has irked many patriots and citizens legitimately worry about their future under coalition governments.

There is indisputable evidence and direct experience from citizens that since the advent of unregulated coalition governments in some of the major cities and towns, development and service delivery have moved in reverse. We have to arrest this negative development urgently and collectively.

The African National Congress would like to put forward a set of measures and principles that must underpin the framework that can improve the functioning of hung councils and coalition government in our municipalities.

We hereunder outline the set of measures and principles as follows:

1. Coalitions must be based on a common minimum programme — a Citizens' Charter — that focuses on measurable targets to service delivery and development in the communities. Such a programme must be made public and be subjected to discussions in community meetings.

2. Coalition partners must commit to shared values — stability, accountability, ethics and integrity, community participation, good governance, respect for the Constitution and the rule of law, social justice and equity, human dignity, non-racialism and non-sexism, etc.

3. The party that has won the largest votes should lead the coalition in that municipality and executive positions should be allocated in proportion to the votes obtained by coalition partners. Coalition governments should reflect the will of the people, not elite deal-making among parties.

4. A threshold should be introduced so that there is a degree of legitimacy with regard to what amount of electoral support qualifies a party or candidate to be part of councils and coalition governments.

5. The law should be amended to ensure that public administration is insulated from coalition deal-making and bargaining and that motions of no-confidence are not.

6. Coalitions should be transparent and accountable to the people in their jurisdiction by giving quarterly reports and accounting to citizens on service delivery progress and milestones.

7. Where no party has a clear majority (50% plus one), the executive committee system should be introduced by amending Section 12 Notices.

8. There should be an independent dispute resolution mechanism established to deal with any disputes among coalition partners.

9. The formula for allocating PR seats in councils is profoundly undemocratic and should be amended to reflect the will of the people it punishes the parties that have won more wards.

In this regard and in pursuant to these principles and conditions. the ANC commits itself to the following:

1. The ANC will prioritise working with parties. community-based organisations and civil society formations that are genuinely committed to stability, social justice and ending apartheid colonialism in all its forms. Those who are divisive should not be considered.

2. The ANC will avoid entering into coalition for the sake of ganging up against other parties — this is neither sustainable nor desirable in a country that faces deep socioeconomic problems and has a history of racial divisions. A coalition should be about healing our divisions, capable and ethical governance that takes forward the vision of fundamental socioeconomic transformation that benefits all citizens. as espoused in the Freedom Charter and the Constitution of the Republic.

As a general principle, societies are always forced to evolve political systems to reflect both their moral intentions about. and experiences frorn. their efforts at progressive social transformation.

South African society is now called upon to reflect on the insights we are gaining out of the past 30 years of democratic experimentation for fundamental social transformation. This discussion on evolving a viable coalition framework for our local government authorities must be viewed as part of this evolution of political system and the discussion must retain loyalty to the shared moral intention to build an effective devekvmental state at all levels.

The ANC notes that there will always be ideological. polio,' and political differences among parties in our political landscape. However. in each municipality, we are prepared to work with parties that are genuinely committed to stabilise municipalities so that they can provide services and promote developrnent in communities. We are also keen to explore grand coalitions in order to ensure stability, service delivery and local development.

We believe these principles and legislative measures will restore public confidence and reassert the core ideals espoused in the Freedom Charter and the Constitution of our Republic. which put people first. We call on all patriots to support the framework to regulate and stabilise coalitions.

I thank you!

Issued by ANC, 8 August 2023