ACDP preparing to join multiparty opposition coalition

The African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) is preparing to join the Multi-party Charter for South Africa, signed earlier this year by opposition parties to set up a pre-election coalition in a bid to unseat the ANC in next year’s national and provincial elections.

The party, led by Kenneth Meshoe since its formation in 1993, is set to join forces with the Democratic Alliance (DA), ActionSA, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), the Freedom Front Plus, the United Independent Movement, the Spectrum National Party and the Independent South African National Civic Organisation, which signed the charter at a multi-party convention in Johannesburg in August.

Several sources told the Mail & Guardian that the ACDP national executive had taken the decision to join the opposition coalition last week after consultation with party structures.

The ACDP’s acceptance of the invitation to opposition parties to join the coalition, which was sent out last month, is understood to have been scheduled for discussion at the bi-weekly meetings of the MPC’s steering committee, last Thursday.

“The ACDP leadership body had taken the decision to join,” one of the sources, who asked not to be named, said this week. 

“There should be an announcement in the next few weeks.”

The source said a second party was close to joining the coalition agreement on the heels of the ACDP and that several others were in talks with its leadership secretariat, which meets every two weeks.

Both DA leader John Steenhuisen and ActionSA national chairperson Michael Beaumont confirmed that another party was set to join but declined to name it.

ACDP deputy president Wayne Thring said they had been approached to join the multi-party charter discussions after the convention held in Johannesburg and would be doing so.

“On consideration, our leadership agreed that we would participate on the basis that these are discussions around the creation of a potential coalition after the elections. In the future, our leader, myself and other party leaders will be taking part in the multi-party charter discussion,” Thring said.

Neither ActionSA nor the DA believe the clash between the parties over the Tshwane municipal worker wage increase will affect the national and provincial coalition agreement.

The parties said while other local government coalitions had collapsed over differences between the parties, the multi-party charter process had been insulated from those taking place at local government level to prevent them from affecting the national and provincial coalition process.

“The principle that has applied from the beginning of the process is that the multi-party charter does not apply to local government. We can’t go back and forth over what had happened in local government,” Steenhuisen said. “It is precisely the situation at local government that predicated the beginning of the multi-party coalition process.”

Issues around Tshwane, where ActionSA and the DA had signed off on a budget which did not cater for salary increases, on which ActionSA was backtracking, were being discussed between the parties through the coalition management committee set up at local government level.

A technical team set up at that level was assisting the two parties in bilateral talks around the Tshwane issues, which would not be discussed by the leadership of the parties, which met every two weeks to talk about progress.

“This has always been the agreement, so that we don’t let local government matters impact on what happens at the multi-party coalition level. 

“I don’t think it [the clashes with ActionSA in Tshwane] is helpful but it will have no real impact on the multi-party charter. All the parties remain signatories to the charter,” Steenhuisen said.

Beaumont said he did not believe Tshwane would have an effect on the national agreement and they had taken steps to ensure that “things that take place at local level do not poison what we need to do at a national and provincial level”.

ActionSA had remained in the pact despite the DA’s failure to back their motion of no confidence in the Johannesburg mayor, which could have taken control of the city from the ANC and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

“We didn’t allow that to impact the national project and need to continue not to allow what goes on at local government to interfere. This is uncharted terrain and there has to be a continuous process of learning and improving,” Beaumont said.

“I think it is important for us to be aware of the need to show that we have learned lessons from local government; that nobody wants to take those issues into the management of the coalition process,” he said.

Neither Steenhuisen nor Beaumont believes the outlining of pre-conditions for agreements with the ANC poses any threat to their coalition, the participants in which had signed an agreement not to enter into any agreements with the ANC or EFF.

IFP president Velenkosini Hlabisa this week confirmed that he would not be moving to the national assembly and would remain in KwaZulu-Natal as his party’s premier candidate for 2024.

Hlabisa also laid down the conditions for cooperation with the ANC, which included an apology for its portrayal of the late Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who founded the IFP, as being responsible for the political violence between the parties in the 1990s and that the governing party accept blame for its role.

Steenhuisen said the IFP and the ANC had been engaged in an on and off reconciliation process since the 1990s over the violence and over the ANC’s “maligning” of Buthelezi.

“This relates to historical matters. The IFP is a signatory to the multi-party charter and to the clause which is very clear that the parties in the charter will not conduct coalition negotiations with the ANC or the EFF or parties that are outside of the charter,” Steenhuisen said.

He said although he did not propose to speak for the IFP, “I believe there is an agreement that we would be working together to remove the ANC from office, rather than lengthening its stay.”

Beaumont said he viewed the conditions set by the IFP as being such that they would never be met by the ANC and, as such, they would not affect the multi-party process.

Hlabisa said the issue of reconciliation with the ANC had “absolutely nothing” to do with the multi-party coalition agreement as the process was aimed at “healing the wounds of the past” and not at co-governing with the ANC.

He had written to President Cyril Ramaphosa after Buthelezi’s funeral last month to initiate the process, which the IFP founder had wanted to take place, outlining the conditions for it.

“The IFP remains committed to the multi-party coalition agreement which we believe offers voters the best opportunity to remove the ANC from power in next year’s elections by voting for the parties which are part of the multi-party charter ,” Hlabisa said.

The parties are planning to hold a series of engagements with civil society in the coming months and are in the process of developing common policy on a number of key issues including job creation and load-shedding before the elections.

The first of these would be held in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban and would be important in building understanding about the multi-party charter beyond the ranks of the parties involved in it.

Beaumont said the common policy document was progressing and would be made public before the elections.

“It is important to disagree but it is also important to outline what it is that we do agree on — crime, load- shedding, the economy — so that we can present to the South African people a common programme of what it is we want to do,” he said.

Steenhuisen said pressure from their voters — and from existing and potential funders — would probably encourage more small parties to join the coalition before the elections, which are likely to take place in May next year.

“Voters and donors will have to ask themselves, going into the most important election in 30 years, whether a party has a potential path to power. Right now, the multi-party charter is the very best shot at unseating the ANC,” he said.

“Donors and voters are right to ask whether you are part of the process or not. 

“Those outside the charter are going to find choppy waters going into the next elections and are going to find it increasingly difficult to make that sell to voters and donors.”