The future of the Cape Town government will be decided in talks on Wednesday, the city’s executive mayor, Helen Zille, said.
”As this morning dawns, I am at the head of a minority government in Cape Town, which is never a comfortable place to be,” she told SAfm presenter John Perlman.
”Today will be decisive. There are lots of talks ongoing and we will see what emerges. At the end of the day we will know.”
Zille expelled the African Muslim Party (AMP) from the city’s multiparty ruling structure on Tuesday after discovering it had been conducting talks with the African National Congress about forming a new coalition.
”I considered it a major breach of our agreement, a betrayal of our agreement, and I expelled them from the multiparty government yesterday [Tuesday],” she said.
With its three seats on the council, the AMP would give an ANC-led coalition a majority over the DA-led multiparty government.
The DA’s coalition now has 103 seats, while the ANC, ID and AMP together have 106 seats. The Pan Africanist Congress has one seat on the 210-member council.
Zille said the Democratic Alliance had approached the Independent Democrats (ID) to join its coalition, but had not been given a final response ”of any kind” yet.
”What they’re doing is consulting their structures and we would like to hear what the outcome of that consultation is at the end of the day,” she said.
”What we’ve been arguing is that it’ll be important to create stability, but of course the choice is up to them.”
Zille would not reveal what she had offered the ID.
”I really don’t want to make any comment now that jeopardise any outcome. Things are really too sensitive and tentative,” she said.
Zille said the ID had been the DA’s first choice of coalition partner after the elections.
”They chose to reject that offer. That was their choice at the time, they did not have the balance of power so they could not put the ANC in.”
Zille said of the seven failed attempts so far to oust the DA-led coalition, this was ”perhaps more serious than any one has ever been before”.
She said the DA’s aim was to make opposition coalitions work in government.
”That is our commitment. That is our aim. We think it’s the future of democracy in South Africa and that’s what I’m trying to achieve in Cape Town.”
ID leader Patricia de Lille could not immediately be reached for comment.
Cape Town ID caucus leader Simon Grindrod told the South African Broadcasting Corporation a proposal that the party join the DA-led coalition had been forwarded to its leaders.
”We will consider the proposal put to us but we have to obviously consult our structures,” he said.
ID spokesperson Steven Otter told the Mail & Guardian Online on Wednesday morning that the party should be ready to make an announcement later in the day. – Sapa