DA GP on way forward for coalitions: Petulant performative politics simply isn't enough
17 April 2023
The DA in Gauteng will do what is necessary to ensure that the people of Johannesburg have a government that is competent and sets out a feasible plan to put the City on track for recovery.
South Africans can no longer afford the petulant politics that have derailed good faith attempts by the DA and reliable coalition partners to form and sustain multi-party coalition governments in vital places like Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni.
Jockeying for positions, undermining of government initiatives, sabotaging of democratic processes - these things have become the modus operandi for opportunists in the ANC-EFF, their puppet parties, and even, in extreme instances, representatives involved in multi-party efforts through backroom deals and secret votes that undermine the will of political leaders to work together.
As such, the DA in Gauteng will not be drawn into repeat performances of this type of gimmick governance.
Johannesburg's incumbent ANC-EFF puppet mayor must be removed from office. The comprehensive display of incompetence by Al Jama-Ah's Tapelo Amad as blundering pseudo-executive has vindicated the DA's warnings of the dire consequences of the coalition of corruption putting residents' money where the ANC-EFF's mouthpieces are.
The DA will therefore support Cllr Amad's removal from the mayoralty.
But elimination of one symptom does not cure underlying malady. A feasible, concrete plan is vital for the City of Johannesburg. This is the non-negotiable basis for the DA's approach to the political quagmire in the City.
The DA in Johannesburg will not engage in horse trading, underhanded deals or jockeying for government office. We won't seek, like others, to auction off nor bid for the short-term gains of petulant politics.
The problems facing the City of Johannesburg are serious and righting the fundamental course of service delivery will not be easy nor instant. Similarly, politics must grow up and have as foundation a seriousness and longer-term maturity without which trajectories of decline and decades of failure cannot be arrested and reversed.
To all political parties in the Johannesburg City Council we in the DA say: collaborative politics of the type that could realise the hopes of a moonshot change for South Africa must be grounded on the realities of feasible, delivery-focused plans. This will be the basis for the DA to join or support any new government.
To all the residents of Johannesburg, and in fact Gauteng, we say: the democratic power in your hands is the only thing on which a true alliance of growth and hope and action can be built. The trust you have placed in the DA and the constitutional duty this places on us is why we as a party cannot pretend that mandates don't matter. The establishment of true-blue governments as vehicles of service delivery stands today as the most verified and attested political fact in South Africa.
Petulant performative politics simply isn't enough. It's time for all political parties to put forward feasible plans instead of ambitious, opportunistic politicians. The DA in Gauteng is committed to solutions over sensation, achievement over ambition, outcomes over one-upmanship. Meet us here and we can build together.
Issued by Solly Msimanga, DA Gauteng Leader, 17 April 2023
