Johannesburg - The ANC and other minority parties stand a great chance of voting City of Joburg mayor Mpho Phalatse out of office at the end of the month after a breakdown in talks between the DA-led multiparty coalition and the Patriotic Alliance (PA).
Last week, it was revealed that the PA had been silently negotiating with the multiparty coalition, with talks led by ActionSA leaders Herman Mashaba and Funzi Ngobeni.
The talks were supposed to result in the PA joining the multiparty coalition and the protection of Mpho Phalatse from being booted out through a motion of no confidence. But it appears that the DA’s top leadership scuppered the negotiations, describing the demands made by the PA as ridiculous.
PA president Gayton McKenzie told members of his party at the weekend that talks had soured and that the DA leadership had no respect for coalition partners.
The Star understands that the PA was to get two MMC positions in Joburg and Ekurhuleni. But the DA Federal Executive had problems with the arrangement.
"On Friday last week, we agreed that we would have a signing ceremony, then something strange happened. They said they were going to sign but not appoint you immediately. I said, ‘Nonsense’. When we signed that our people must be appointed, it was up and down, and then all hell broke loose because I was insisting our people do not have jobs," McKenzie said.
McKenzie said a meeting of coalition partners and the DA nearly went out of control, with the DA reneging on its original commitment to the PA and coming up with surprises. This angered all coalition partners, including ActionSA and the IFP.
"We had a meeting; it was one of the most heated meetings; the DA then wrote a letter saying that they will give (us) one seat in Joburg and that if we behave well in the next 12 months, they will consider giving us another seat; they did not speak about Ekurhuleni, but they talked about us, they do not talk to us; the letter was leaked to us," McKenzie said.
McKenzie accused the DA of engaging with other political parties from a position of superiority. He said the PA was insulted and from now on considered the DA an enemy.
"I told the DA to understand me and understand me clearly. We do not take instructions from John Steenhuisen, and we do not get told we are not a sub-branch of the DA. I said, ‘Don’t piss us off,’"’ McKenzie said.
Sources in the DA told The Star that the PA was demanding too much, and that was why the deal could not go ahead.