Kenny Kunene, the PA ultimatum, and Johannesburg’s coalition at a crossroads

Seven days, as if an omen has been cast upon the coalition. The Patriotic Alliance has set in motion a cursed countdown, each hour ticking like the foreboding warning of a VHS tape from The Ring, that no one can escape.  

The ANC counts the hours, knowing that when the clock strikes zero, the outcome may be irreversible. The ultimatum is clear: reinstate Kenny Kunene as Johannesburg’s MMC for Transport, or face a fracture that could ripple across the city and beyond.

Kunene’s removal was a spectacle of contradictions. Legally cleared by Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, yet politically cast aside. Kunene’s legal vindication doesn’t seem to guarantee him respect or his position back, because in the political world, what others think of him (the ANC, coalition partners, the public) is more important than a lawyer’s clearance. 

The PA sees itself as a kingmaker, a party representing communities the ANC has too often sidelined. To the ANC, however, PA appears as a junior partner, tolerated at the table but denied the microphone, a reflection they would rather not acknowledge. Cleared by lawyers, condemned in optics, Kunene is more of a mask than a man, pulled on and ripped off as the stage requires.

Power, even in the smallest hand, can tip a scale when leverage is understood. McKenzie’s warning sharpens that point: if the ANC continues to disrespect the PA, the party is ready to pivot, to align itself with the DA instead. Seven days, the cursed countdown, is all it takes for absence to become presence, for the threat of withdrawal from the Government of National Unity to unsettle even the largest partner. Coalitions are arithmetic, yes, but influence is geometry: the placement of a single pebble can fracture the balance, bend corridors of power, and force concessions that a brute majority cannot.

The tension is not abstract. Johannesburg’s streets, from Westbury to Newlands, bear witness. Empty taps, erratic water supply, and neglected infrastructure turn political arithmetic into lived reality. Ultimatums in boardrooms have consequences in neighbourhoods; leverage is a lifeline, as much as a bargaining chip. Respect denied, the city suffers, and unity becomes a hollow echo.

This is the fragile alchemy of coalitions. Alliances are not cemented by offices alone, nor by ceremonial titles; they require recognition, trust, and a shared understanding of power. Remove either, and the walls shake. Remove too many, and they collapse. The ANC, long accustomed to monolithic authority, now faces a lesson in humility: influence is not proportional to size, and loyalty is not owed without respect.

Seven days. Tick-tock, like a shadow looming over the coalition. When the clock hits zero, respect or its absence will claim its due. Politics is not just about numbers; it is about identity, leverage, and the delicate hinges upon which coalitions turn. And in Johannesburg, the city and its leaders wait, each aware that the smallest hand may decide who stands, who falls, and which doors swing open to new alliances.

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