Horse trading as coalition talks kick into gear

Résumé détaillé

As coalition talks gather pace across hung South African municipalities, the ANC explores whether the SACP could transfer council seats to rescue mayoral…

The ANC is set to approach the South African Communist Party (SACP) to discuss the possibility of the latter donating its PR seats in various councils.

Should the SACP agree, this would mean the ANC could bring at least one of its mayoral candidates in the City of Johannesburg into council, as none of them secured seats through the PR system.

Speaking to the Mail & Guardian this week, a senior Gauteng Provincial Task Team (PTT) member said convenor Panyaza Lesufi had informed members about a possible approach to the SACP and other political parties to ask them to give their PR seats to the ANC.

The ANC did not win any PR seats in Johannesburg, meaning that all its mayoral candidates in the city failed to secure seats in council.

The PTT member said they were unsure whether this would work, considering the strained relationship between the SACP and the ANC.

‘‘I'm not sure how this is going to work, but I don't think the SACP would allow their candidate not to go to council and then field them with an ANC person," the source said.

Another ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) member said they were considering engaging the SACP to ask the party to give the ANC PR seats in some of the councils in Gauteng.

The NEC member said the conversations were still informal, but the SACP had already approached the ANC to discuss coalitions.

SACP acting spokesperson Mhlekwa Nxumalo said the trade off with councillors would not form part of their negotiations.

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