An agreement that will see a coalition made up of 56 seats in the Nelson Mandela Bay council is close to being signed after a deal was struck with the DA and six smaller parties.
The DA and the other parties — the ACDP, AIC, AIM, FF+, PAC and UDM — hope to sign a coalition agreement before the end of the month.
The coalition excludes the EFF, PA, DOP, NA, GOOD and ANC.
The NA, GOOD, AIC, UDM, PAC, DOP and AIM are still in a coalition with the ANC that governs Nelson Mandela Bay.
DA caucus leader Rano Kayser referred questions to the party’s federal chair, Helen Zille, who did not respond to a request for comment.
The developments were announced in an unsigned statement sent to the media after a meeting of the parties at the Gqeberha Golf Club on Thursday.
“This is the eighth time we have met to discuss a stable coalition government for the city, to replace the fractured and dysfunctional ANC coalition that is presiding over a paralysed administration divided between two competing city managers,” the statement says.
“The parties involved in [the] talks will report back to their structures for a final mandate.
“We aim to sign a formal coalition before the end of the month.”
According to insiders, the parties were told to go back to their national leadership before talks about positions could start.
Should the parties forge ahead and attempt to form a new government, they would need 61 councillors to have a majority in the council.
AIM councillor Mkhuseli Jack said he was pleased with the developments.
“We are busy with the final touches now.
“I can assure you that we are making steady progress,” he said.
“I am happy about this as AIM has always been working towards getting a working formula out of the current situation and we have not stopped searching for that.”
FF+ councillor Bill Harrington said the party looked forward to being a part of a coalition government in Nelson Mandela Bay.
“The FF+ is committed to ensuring that service delivery, in general, must be sharpened across the metro and the FF+ will in all seriousness hold the municipality and also the coalition government responsible for service delivery,” Harrington said.
UDM spokesperson Yongama Zigebe said they were ecstatic that there was finally a breakthrough.
“After meeting for about the eighth time where we went back and forth, we can see that we are going somewhere,” he said.
“Our hope is that we are going to move with speed and change the government so that there is stability in the metro and services are being rendered.”
He said the UDM would discuss the finer details with its national leadership.
PAC councillor Bassie Kamana said he was yet to be briefed about the meeting as he had not attended.
Kamana, however, revealed the PAC was also in talks with the ANC.
The DA called off coalition talks on June 2 to form a new government in the Bay after the council voted in favour of the appointment of Lonwabo Ngoqo as city manager.
Ngoqo was voted in during a late-night meeting after being given the nod by a majority of councillors after a motion of exigency to rescind the appointment of Noxolo Nqwazi as city manager was put to a vote.
The DA, ACDP and FF+ voted against the motion and Ngoqo’s appointment while the ANC, EFF, DOP, AIC, PAC, UDM, GOOD and AIM supported both.
Nqwazi has since taken the council’s decision to the Gqeberha high court.
A few days later, Zille posted on Facebook that the party could not support Ngoqo’s appointment as he had a cloud of controversy hanging over his head.
However, coalition talks were revived to try to take control of Nelson Mandela Bay after Zille met several of the smaller parties again a few weeks later.
At the time of the talks being called off, Kayser said the party could not continue negotiations with parties who had acted in such an unethical way.
He said the party would remain on the opposition benches and focus on winning an outright majority in the next local government elections.
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