A bid by the African National Congress (ANC) to wrest back power in Cape Town, a lone bastion of opposition to South Africa’s ruling party, has triggered a fierce backlash across the political spectrum.
Western Cape minister of local government Richard Dyantyi, a senior ANC cadre, has summoned members of the city council to a meeting next Tuesday where he will flesh out plans announced last month to amend the system of government.
Dyantyi wants a slimmed-down executive committee, selected in proportion to the number of votes each party received in March’s election, to replace the current mayoral committee headed by Helen Zille of the Democratic Alliance.
With no single party enjoying a majority in the 210-seat chamber, Zille has been heading a coalition for the last six months without ANC representatives. However, the complex new formula would effectively hand control to the ANC and its allies, the Independent Democrats (ID), which is the third largest party.
The ANC claims the move will ensure a more ”inclusive” system of government.
”My reason for considering the change in the type of municipality is that the present type does not allow for inclusive political processes in respect of the present dictates and challenges,” Dyantyi said in a letter to Zille on Tuesday.
Dyantyi and the ANC’s arguments have convinced few and been widely condemned as a blatant power grab by a party that cannot abide by the will of the people.
”The ANC cannot handle the fact that it doesn’t monopolise power across the country and at all levels of government,” was the verdict of Cape Town’s Afrikaans daily, Die Burger.
Even the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), an ally in the national government, has been moved to speak out, with its Western Cape secretary Tony Ehrenreich saying it left ”a bad taste in the mouth”.
Since the end of apartheid and the first multi-racial elections 12 years ago, the ANC has dominated power in nearly every corner of the country.
Cape Town, however, has consistently bucked the trend, with voters stubbornly refusing to give the ANC a majority.
While backroom deals enabled it to run the city until March, Zille has since been able to cobble together a broad-based coalition without the ANC.
Dyantyi’s move, widely seen to have President Thabo Mbeki’s support, has led many to query the party’s commitment to democracy.
Former president and Nobel laureate FW de Klerk, who now heads a think-tank called the Foundation Centre for Constitutional Rights, believes the change has far-reaching implications for democratic local governance.
”Any dispensation that would vest executive decision-making in the hands of parties that do not have majority support in the council would be inconsistent with democracy and would thus be unconstitutional,” his office said in a statement.
Veteran campaigner Helen Suzman, who fought for the ANC’s right to enter the democratic process during apartheid, said it was now failing to respect diversity of opinion.
”Respecting different views and opinions does not imply rejecting the decision of the electorate,” she wrote in a newspaper letter.
The Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party described Dyantyi’s plan as an ”assault on democracy” and a ”ruthless power grab”.
Even the ID, while supporting the executive committee, have queried ”the methods and motives behind Dyantyi’s implementation of it”.
Bolstered by cross-party opposition, Zille has vowed to challenge the move all the way to the Constitutional Court.
Adam Habib, director of the Human Sciences Research Council think-tank, said the ANC could end up shooting itself in the foot in Cape Town if the net result was to undermine confidence in the overall political system.
”This is perceived by large numbers of people as an attempt to get through the side door what it [the ANC] couldn’t get through the front door — that this is political opportunism.” — Sapa-AFP