By Simon Nare
The Democratic Alliance (DA) maintained its commanding lead in the City of Johannesburg on Thursday night, securing 40.98% of the vote in the historically African National Congress (ANC)-dominated municipality, while the ANC trailed at 16.47%, according to provincial election results available at about 10pm.
Despite securing more than twice the ANC’s support, the DA is unlikely to secure an outright majority, with projections pointing to a hung council as results continued to trickle in.
ActionSA was narrowly behind the ANC at 16.35%, followed by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) at 7.19%, uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK Party) at 5.47%, the Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) and Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) at 2.21% each, and Rise Mzansi at 2.18%.
With no party on course to secure an outright majority, coalition negotiations are expected to determine the composition of the next city government, with ActionSA emerging as a potential kingmaker.
ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba told reporters at the IEC Results Operations Centre (ROC) on Thursday that his party was willing to engage with any political party in coalition discussions.
Mashaba appeared to soften his stance towards the DA, saying ActionSA was prepared to sit around the negotiating table despite having fiercely ruled out a political partnership with his former party during the election campaign.
Mashaba previously served as Johannesburg mayor under the DA.
DA mayoral candidate Helen Zille said her party’s position on coalition negotiations was that the party securing the most votes should lead the municipality.
Zille said she would only consider joining a coalition government if it could guarantee stability and sufficient support to govern effectively.
“The negotiations are done nationally. So, I can’t sit here and make conditions for my position. But I do have strong views, obviously. But, you know, the point is that we want a stable coalition and we want a governable coalition. And I’m not sure that I’d be prepared to go into government just for the sake of being in power. If we get into government, we have to be able to govern properly,” she told Inside Politics at the IEC Results Operations Centre in Johannesburg on Thursday.
Johannesburg has experienced significant political instability over the past decade, largely because of fragile coalition governments following the end of single-party majority rule in the 2016 local government elections.
Since then, the city has been characterised by shifting political alliances, repeated motions of no confidence and frequent changes in mayoral leadership, with even smaller parties taking control of the mayor’s office.
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