Smaller Parties Slam DA Over Coalition Decisions

Smaller parties have slammed the Democratic Alliance (DA) for its decision to be an opposition party and put forward it’s own mayoral candidate in the City of Johannesburg, saying it put the success of coalitions in jeopardy.

The cracks are beginning to show in the lead up to the Johannesburg metro council on Monday after the DA announced that it would not support ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba’s nomination for the mayoral position.

On Saturday DA leader John Steenhuisen said his party would not go into a coalition that would involve the Economic Freedom Fighters in the Tshwane and Johannesburg metros.

“Where we enter into opposition coalitions that have a chance of succeeding, we will support a representative of the largest party as the mayoral candidate. We will not be part of any voting block that is dependent on the EFF,” said Steenhuisen.

However, parties including the Freedom Front Plus, United Democratic Movement (UDM), and African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) are lobbying for ActionSA’s Mashaba to be the mayoral face of the coalition.