UDM president Bantu Holomisa.
Bantu Holomisa, the president of the United Democratic Movement (UDM), has told the Democratic Alliance not to rush into a coalition with the UDM in Nelson Mandela Bay.
“I told them to wait,” he said.
The UDM president said that he isn’t concerned about the DA approaching anyone else for a coalition in the Eastern Cape metropolitan, despite the party’s gain of only 1.9% of the vote in the metro (at Thursday nighty’s count).
“I’m not looking for opposition. I didn’t go and sniff and say: can you give me opposition?” he said. “They can go to another person, I don’t care.”
He said that the ANC has also approached him for talks, and signalled the party’s hope that the last of the votes will help them stay in the running to gain ground in the metro.
“They were saying it’s like keeping their fingers crossed, like they need a miracle from the remaining votes,” Holomisa said.
Although the ANC has received the most votes nationally, it has been a costly election for the governing party in the local government elections. Three of the most contested metros, which include Nelson Mandela Bay, and the City of Johannesburg and the City of Tshwane in Gauteng, has seen the ANC lose support, with the DA gaining ground.
Holomisa attributes the close contest to the DA’s rising support in townships.
“The problem the ANC has is that the DA has managed to get into the townships,” he said. “The voters are rewarding the opposition because the opposition has been consistent, saying ‘this is wrong’. They went to court and won cases and cases, and it’s because of one person: JZ [Jacob Zuma].”
“JZ has cost them.”