ANC veterans league president, Snuki Zikalala. File photo
The ANC Veterans League believes that the party and the Democratic Alliance (DA) can put aside ideological differences at local government level and enter into coalitions based on a joint commitment to deliver services.
The league has been critical of the coalition agreements between the ANC and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal municipalities, and wants the party to reconsider them.
Veterans league president Snuki Zikalala said this week that, in line with its conference resolutions, it wanted the ANC to terminate its “unethical” coalitions with the EFF and the Patriotic Alliance (PA).
“We are saying as veterans that we can’t talk about coalitions of 2024 when some that are happening now are unethical, with parties which have no respect for the Constitution and the rules of law,” Zikalala said. “We can’t get into a coalition with such parties. What are we saying to our people?”
He said the ANC should be willing to go into coalitions with any party that subscribed to good governance, the rule of law, respect for human dignity and equality.
“We know very well that the DA does not believe in B-BBEE [broad-based black economic empowerment] and transformation, but if we can find a way of working with them on issues on which we can deliver better, in terms of services delivery, then there is nothing wrong,” Zikalala said. “We can work with any party that is committed to that.”
Coalition agreements needed to be transparent and should involve quarterly report backs as an accountability, the ANC veterans leader said.
“There must be transparency. There needs to be a document that says this is why we are entering into a coalition with any party. It should not be done behind closed doors.”
Likewise, any agreement with the DA needed to contain basic conditions and terms of reference for it to work.
“If the DA comes and says it wants to enter into a coalition with us, let us agree on the bare minimums and maximums and let it be publicly known that this is how and why we are entering into this agreement,” Zikalala said. “With any party, this should not be done behind closed doors.
“The citizens should know why we are entering into an agreement with any party. It is the citizens who give us the numbers to go into government in the municipalities.”
Zikalala said “red line” issues with the DA were racism and its opposition to transformation, but that the ANC could work with the party in municipalities, where it excelled, for the sake of development and service delivery.
“Every party has its own strengths and its own weaknesses. We are prepared to enter into an agreement with any party as long as we agree on the bare minimums and maximums,” he said.
Zikalala said that although the ANC needed to monitor the outcomes of the DA-convened moonshot pact discussions taking place this week, it needed to focus on service delivery and getting its own voters out for 2024.
“We don’t want to talk about 2024 in terms of coalitions. We know why our people did not go out and vote in 2021. It is because we failed them in terms of service delivery. Why don’t we fix what we know went wrong, and accelerate programmes for job creation and service delivery?” he said.
“We are looking at what the DA is doing. We can’t say we are closing our eyes. The DA is looking at 2024 with the hope that its numbers will increase. We are looking at 2024 with the hope that we will retain our majorities in parliament.
“We need to make sure we provide basic services and make sure we do it better than the opposition,” Zikalala added.