DA moots multiparty pact to kick out ANC

After clinching a second term to lead SA’s biggest opposition political party, John Steenhuisen invited small parties and civic organisations to come together in a pact to keep the ANC out of the Union Buildings after  the 2024 national general elections. 

Steenhuisen, who beat former Joburg mayor Dr Mpho Phalatse to serve as DA leader for the next three years, announced his party would initiate a process to form a pre-election pact with like-minded political parties, civil society organisations and civic movements to defeat the ANC and keep the EFF out of the national government.

There is anticipation that the ANC will drop below 50% in the national election in 2024, especially after the party’s votes decreased to 45.59% overall during the 2021 local government elections.

Opposition parties are hoping to use the ANC’s electoral decline and either form coalitions outside the ANC or simply prevent the ANC and EFF, which is the country’s third biggest party, from coalition a coalition.

Steenhuisen said his invitation was open to all leaders of civil society bodies opposed to the ANC and EFF, and excludes those whose organisations had tethered themselves to the ANC.

“The purpose of this pact will be to forge co-ordination and unity of purpose among all organisations that want to defeat the ANC and keep the EFF out. To achieve the moon shot, we need a whole-of-society approach that builds a new ecosystem of change.

“The pact’s purpose will also be to sit around the table to agree on rules of engagement that will enable different organisations to retain their own identities while bringing an end to the petty squabbles and division that only benefits the ANC.

“But let me be clear, it will also not be enough to form an impotent, unstable minority coalition. Our experience in places like Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni teaches us that minority coalitions that cannot reach 51% are inherently unstable,” he said.

Steenhuisen said EFF leader Julius Malema was the DA’s  political enemy number one.

“Given the fact that the ANC now officially co-governs with the EFF in parts of Gauteng, we need to start taking the threat of these parties ganging up to destroy our country in 2024 very, very seriously.

“I want to be unequivocal about the DA’s view on this that the day that an ANC-EFF government takes over, it will be doomsday for SA. EFF doomsday will make the collapse of Zimbabwe look like a dress rehearsal, and will leave all South Africans destitute – black, coloured, white and Indian,” he said.

During the two-day federal congress, Helen Zille was re-elected federal council chairperson after being nominated unopposed.

Elected for the deputy federal council chairs are: Ashor Sarupen, Annelie Lotriet and Thomas Walters.

Deputy federal chairs are: Cape Town safety and security MMC JP Smith, Solly Malatsi and Anton Bredell.

Federal chair Ivan Meyer returns to his post and Dion George returns as federal finance chairperson.

The leadership of the newly elected DA generated some reaction on social media, with some saying it was not diverse.

However, Meyer hit out at the naysayers, saying if one looked at the leadership of the ANC there was no diversity at all.

nkosin@sowetan.co.za