Coalition partnerships will be based on manifestos, claim political parties
Political parties are entering coalition negotiations following 66 hung councils declared in the local government elections.
Among them are the coveted metros of eThekwini, Johannesburg and Tshwane, where none of the big parties scored an outright majority.
The Inkatha Freedom Party, which won 16 northern KwaZulu-Natal councils in the local elections, says its National Council will meet on Saturday.
The party's Narend Singh says they'll be laying their foundation of principles before moving forward with coalition agreements.
"There would be broad principles and a broad framework and then we would set up a team of negotiators for different parts of the province and even in Johannesburg and take it from there."
He says while the party's performance sets the tone for the 2024 polls, the hard work begins now.
"Our great challenge now and responsibility that the people have given us is to ensure that the municipalities that we govern outright and that we would govern with coalition partners will be one that will be true to our manifesto and our promise to people."
African National Congress elections head Fikile Mbalula says talks have already begun unofficially.
He says the mandate will come from the party's National Working Committee on Friday.
"We take it, it's a fair outcome. From where we are the worst could have actually happened. We will work with those who want to work with us, but we have got no mandate at the present moment to basically talk or engage with the DA.
"We have been talking informally with a lot of political parties. The results are very clear. The results are saying to us go and work with others."
The Democratic Alliance's John Steenhuisen says they hope to announce their coalition agreements by the end of the weekend.
"People don't like unstable coalitions that don't deliver and I think that's a message that's been sent in places like Tshwane, Nelson Mandela Bay and in the City of Johannesburg.
"Our team have been crunching the numbers and put the numbers into a number of metrics and that has kicked up some likely coalitions where we can have the most stable results. We have started already to reach out to potential partners in those."
