Marianne Merten
The Democratic Party in the Western Cape wants to team up with its provincial coalition partner, the New National Party, to take on the African National Congress in the forthcoming local government elections.
“It’s important the uni-city will be governed by the parties that form the coalition,” said DP Western Cape leader Hennie Bester in an interview this week.
With Cape Town’s six municipalities and the greater metropolitan council set to merge into one megacity after November’s poll, gaining the necessary electoral support to control the new structure is uppermost in politicians’ minds.
Early polls suggest the ANC is poised to sweep the board in the November election, and that all that can stop the ruling party juggernaut is a united opposition. Unlike the national election, which is fought on the basis of proportional representation, the local government poll is a ward election, which means the party first past the post wins.
Amid this week’s speculation over the strain in the DP/NNP coalition, it emerged that the DP federal executive has given its provincial leaders the mandate to pursue coalitions for the municipal elections. This, DP MP Douglas Gibson told Parliament, was part of the party’s strategy to defeat the ANC.
While the feelers are out at national level, initial contact has been made in the Cape. “The key in South Africa now is we have to build the opposition,” Bester said. “Obviously the discussions should get a little bit more serious.”
But NNP insiders say while the coalition is working for the party at present, it is not necessarily a permanent arrangement.
Few among the Cape Nats have forgotten the DP challenge in last September’s by- election in the NNP stronghold of Monte Vista in northern Cape Town. Although the NNP won, the fact that its coalition partner contested the same seat has left a bitter taste.
At the time Western Cape Premier Gerald Morkel described the tensions as “a normal part of a marriage”, a comparison made repeatedly over the past seven months to explain disagreements.
Provincial NNP deputy leader Peter Marais – a crowd-puller with his down-to-earth approach and penchant for leading the party faithful in song – is understood to be concerned about the chances of the party to pull voters in November.
The ANC was outmanouevred eight months ago when the NNP, DP and other opposition parties negotiated a coalition on the basis of a pre-election agreement. The ANC, which for the first time won the Cape on the basis of the number of votes, rejected the offer of one post in the provincial cabinet as an insult. In the ensuing political storm, the other parties withdrew.
Sources say there is “uneasy disquiet” between the coalition partners, who “do not seat easy at the same table”. Apparently many in the NNP fear losing the coloured vote because of what has been described as an “elitist DP approach”.
Morkel dismissed speculation of a break- up. “There are always people who are saying that it will not work,” he said, referring to provincial ANC leader Ebrahim Rasool. “As politicians they could have helped make the government work.”
Proclamations by Morkel and Bester that the coalition was alive and well and had delivered to the people of the province seem to have failed to calm simmering anger about the DP’s assumed role of playmaker in the province where the NNP has traditionally enjoyed free rein.
Issues at the heart of the discontent are the disproportionately high number of cabinet seats and allocation of key portfolios like education and health to the DP, prompting rumours of a possible cabinet reshuffle to allay tensions.