ACTIONSA has implored coalition partners to consider working with the EFF in the City of Ekurhuleni or risk not passing a municipal budget in May.
The party is also of the view that if that working relationship fails, Ekurhuleni executive mayor Tania Campbell could face a vote of no confidence adding this move is likely to succeed if the coalition parties exclude the EFF in the governance of the metro council.
ActionSA national chairperson Michael Beaumont expressed his views after the coalition partners issued a joint statement expressing disgust at his party’s remarks about the state of affairs at Ekurhuleni metro.
“Rather than pointing out the factual misrepresentations, ActionSA agrees that the collective energy of the coalition could be more appropriately spent than the past 24 hours. It does not change our serious concern that the people of Ekurhuleni could once again be led by the exact ANC government they asked us to remove only a few months ago if the coalition does not act decisively, Beaumont said.
He added: “Let's move on and focus on stabilising our voting bloc in Ekurhuleni such that the coalition can survive motions of no confidence and pass budgets that produce service delivery."
Earlier coalition partners reacted with outrage after ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba on Monday made a similar call to his partners without consulting prior to his announcement.
Reacting to Mashaba and ActionSA, coalition partners the DA, ACDP, FF+ and Cope in a joint statement highlighted that Mashaba made those remarks without consulting the Coalition Oversight Group to resolve issues of disputes among them.
“The multi-party coalition negotiation team expressed its profound concern at ActionSA’s unilateral media conference on Monday and approached ActionSA to facilitate the EFF’s entry into our coalition governments.
“The DA merely asked ActionSA, given their good relations with the EFF, to establish how the EFF intended voting in the election of committee chairpersons in Johannesburg. It was stated clearly then, and has been repeated several times, that this did not imply that the coalition was prepared to bring the EFF into our governing arrangements in any way whatsoever,” their statement read.
In it, they further said: “In its attempt to bring the EFF into the governments of Johannesburg and Tshwane, ActionSA has argued that this is the way to stabilise our minority government in Ekurhuleni.
“The coalition does not regard this as a valid reason to compromise on bringing the EFF into government and has resolved so repeatedly. The coalition governments in Tshwane and Johannesburg are stable. In Ekurhuleni the coalition partners have put in place mechanisms to ensure as much stability as possible.”
However, according to insiders, the City of Joburg is likely to face a similar situation over the election of Section70 committee chair of the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC).
The coalition partners had initially allocated that position to the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) who withdrew their nomination on January 27 - a few days after EFF president Julius Malema threatened to terminate his party’s working relationship in some municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal.
Insiders further believe the IFP in Joburg would rather want the seat to be allocated to the EFF to allow its party’s controlled municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal to run smoothly.
The City of Joburg is also on the edge, as parties, especially the ANC and other opposition parties, are awaiting the pending decision of the Gauteng MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Lebogang Maile, to nullify the election of 16 Section79 committee chairs in the City of Joburg.
Political Bureau