ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa says the ruling party will not preoccupy itself with coalition matters at the moment, adding that the main focus now is the ANC’s election campaign alongside its Tripartite Alliance partners.
ANC PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa says the ruling party is working on securing an outright victory, but the issue of coalitions will be determined based on the outcome of the upcoming elections.
He said the issue of coalitions was already under discussion, with deputy president Paul Mashatile leading an initiative to develop a framework on coalitions to avoid political instability in government as has happened in municipalities across the country.
But the ANC was not planning to get into a coalition with any political party because it was campaigning to win the elections as it had done in previous national elections.
Ramaphosa said the results of the elections next year will determine whether there is a need for a coalition government or not.
But Mashatile was already hard at work talking to various parties and other stakeholders on a framework on coalitions.
Ramaphosa said at the recent forum in Cape Town, where political parties, civil society, academics and other stakeholders were invited, it was agreed that there needs to be a threshold for parties to get a seat in Parliament and provincial legislatures.
But smaller parties were up in arms at the summit organised by Mashatile, where they accused the ANC and the DA of trying to exclude them from elections.
Both the ANC and DA have proposed that there needs to be a threshold of 1% for any party to secure a seat in Parliament. But smaller parties said this was a bid to exclude them from elections.
Ramaphosa said there seems to be consensus on this issue after the summit by Mashatile.
“How can we better manage coalitions? Deputy President Paul Mashatile held a forum in Cape Town where he invited a number of parties to discuss the issue of coalitions and one of the key issues that emerged was that we need to have a threshold. A threshold that was discussed and a declaration that was eventually published will also be adding to the understanding that we should have as South Africans how to manage coalitions,” said Ramaphosa.
He said the ANC was, however, working to get an outright victory in the elections.
