The Democratic Alliance (DA) is exploring the possibility of entering into a coalition with other parties in Parliament.
The leader of the official opposition in the National Assembly, Sandra Botha, told the Cape Town Press Club on Thursday that a coalition brings ”more weight” to bear on important issues.
Citing Cape Town’s DA-led multiparty council as an example, she said she sees this as a ”template for Parliament, and I will carefully explore it in the months to come”.
She said it has been shown in Cape Town and in other towns ”that when the opposition cooperate around shared values of openness, accountability and honest, efficient government, the people prosper”.
DA leader Helen Zille has been meeting leaders of the different parties in Parliament. ”I will now continue with that and we will explore the possibilities,” Botha said.
Botha — who was appointed DA leader in the House last month — noted the coalition running Cape Town, which has been operating for just more than a year, was not easy to achieve and keep together.
”I think you have to look at the issues around which you coalesce; that’s what we will be carefully looking at. Even if you aren’t in one party … it [a coalition] seems to offer more weight,” she said.
Responding to a question on her party’s original support for floor-crossing legislation, she admitted this had been a mistake, and the DA had supported it for short-term gain.
”We were very keen on it, we wanted some short-term advantage out of it, and we suffered badly as a result. It was very damaging to support it. The legislation that we passed is complex nonsense. It’s a ridiculous law, and we actually went in there because we wanted a short-term gain.
”Now we’ve turned completely; we want to get rid of it because we’ve seen how stupid it is to take such a short-term view,” she said. — Sapa