SA needs rapid coalitions learning curve

“Our coalition agreements in South Africa suck,” ActionSA’s acting chairperson, Michael Beaumont, said at the Cape Town Press Club on Wednesday.

“I have become somewhat of a point person in coalitions,” said Beaumont, who was involved in the formation of the Multi-Party Charter, a coalition aimed at toppling the ANC in next week’s general elections.

Read more in Daily Maverick: 2024 elections hub

“I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not when you consider how coalitions are shaped in our countries, kind of like being ‘minister of car crashing’ or something like that,” he said.

Coalitions, Beaumont said, should be viewed more positively. “I believe coalitions can offer the key to a lock that has until now been missing.”

Coalitions, Beaumont said, were “coming, whether you think we need it or not … and the only question is, what kind of coalition are we going to be experiencing going forward?

“We need to undergo a very rapid learning curve on the subject of coalitions because as I say, like it or not, here it comes.”

ActionSA has governed in coalitions with the DA in the Gauteng cities of Johannesburg and Tshwane.

Beaumont said a “healthy tension” within coalitions could at times be beneficial. He pointed to the water crisis in Hammanskraal, Tshwane, where ActionSA pushed back within its coalition.

“It was ActionSA who said to our coalition partners, we demand a forensic investigation into Edwin Sodi’s appointment into that project and we will not pass budgets unless there’s more money allocated to address that crisis,” he said.

“Right now we have the numbers to take back the City of Joburg … due to an incredible frustration that we experience between the DA and the PA [Patriotic Alliance]”.

Referring to garbage going uncollected in Johannesburg because of a strike by Pikitup contract workers, he said, “We have the numbers to remove the people who are in office and go and pick up the rubbish the next day… there are serious challenges that we need to understand in coalitions.

‘Coalition agreements suck’

“Our coalition agreements in South Africa suck … we write coalition agreements that are nine pages long and are so generically worded that even the ANC can agree with them.”

Beaumont spent time in Germany exploring how coalitions work in that country.

He said coalition agreements in Germany were between 100 and 150 pages long and “centre around the idea that a bridge must be built here and a school must be built there and a railway line must be built there.

“And that’s the stuff that you grapple with around a coalition and you imagine the benefits of a coalition fighting about whether the railway lines are being delivered on time or under budget.”

Read more in Daily Maverick: In the age of coalitions, an involved, active citizenry is paramount 

Shocks and surprises next week

Touching on next week’s elections, Beaumont said, “There’s going to be a lot of surprises that arrive next Wednesday … anyone who thinks that they’re going into Wednesday knowing what’s going to happen is going to get a shock, I can assure you of that.”

He said the defining feature of this election was the number of undecided voters that “still exist this late into a campaign and the number of voters who have decided only by the thinnest of margins who they’re going to cast their ballots for”.

“The level of distrust in South African politics means, I think, there’s going to be a lot of votes made at the gates of the voting station … certainly that’s where a lot of surprises await us, I believe”.

The Good party’s Patricia de Lille will address the Cape Town Press Club on Monday, 27 May. DM