Small players have big roles in Southern Cape

The DA and the ANC are competing for the support of smaller parties in the Western Cape in a last-minute bid to wrest control of the province’s hung municipal councils.

The DA gained an outright majority in 16 of the Western Cape’s 30 municipalities while the ANC won only Beaufort West.

The two parties are now wooing the smaller parties as they seek control of the 13 other municipalities.

Among the economically strategic towns stuck with hung councils are the ostrich capital, Oudtshoorn, and the Plettenberg Bay municipality of Bitou – which were both under the control of the ANC – and Swellendam, which the DA had up to this week governed in coalition with the Independent Democrats.

An election re-run is likely to be held for the Central Karoo District Municipality, where the ANC and DA each took three of the six available seats.

The Congress of the People, the Independent Civic Organisation of South Africa – formed by Truman Prince who has since returned to the ANC – and Badih Chaaban’s National People’s Party are the kingmakers in Oudtshoorn.

Kenneth Meshoe’s African Christian Democratic Party holds the balance of power in Swellendam while the fate of Bitou lies in the hands of COPE.

On Friday, Meshoe was non-committal, saying only that the ACDP would not get into bed with any party that had a track record of undermining voters.

“We are not going to rush into anything because we do not want to go into multiparty governance with people who take voters for granted,” Meshoe said.

COPE’s Leonard Ramatlakane said his party’s central national committee would decide tomorrow which party it would co-operate with in six of the Western Cape’s hung councils.

“We have not rushed into negotiations,” he said.

“We need to have a comprehensive look at all municipalities in the province and in the country, but surely COPE will have to participate in the setting up of several municipalities.”

The DA leader in the Western Cape, Theuns Botha, said his party was pushing hard for coalition governments with COPE and the ACDP in Bitou and Swellendam respectively.

“The initial talks were very positive and there certainly is potential that can bring us very strategic municipalities like Bitou, which for us is a high prize,” Botha said.

“We take a global approach to the negotiations, not only about this or that council but about general co-operation, so it might even extend to a council where we don’t even need them,” he said.

Botha said the DA would not push hard for control of Oudtshoorn, as leaders of the potential coalition partners in the municipality were notorious for demanding lucrative positions.

However, Songezo Mjongile, provincial secretary of the ANC, said his party was hoping to run Oudtshoorn with the help of Icosa and the NPP.

“We are already engaging them in Oudtshoorn with a view to forming a coalition government,” Mjongile said.

“I think we are positive with the engagements but the devil is always in the detail. I believe we will win,” he said.

Among major losses for the ANC in the Western Cape were the town of Saldanha on the West Coast and the picturesque Drakenstein municipality, encompassing the wine-farming town of Paarl.

The ANC had controlled Saldanha since 1996 but this week it secured only eight seats out of 24 while the DA won 15.

In Drakenstein, the DA amassed 35 seats out of 61 while the ANC finished with only 19.

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