Steenhuisen mobilising 'apartheid' parties to defeat ANC

As the debate over coalition formation heats up, the National Chairperson of the African National Congress (ANC) Gwede Mantashe has launched a scathing attack on Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen.

He says Steenhuisen is trying to organise all apartheid and former homeland parties to defeat the ANC.

Mantashe told ANC members in Boksburg, attending the OR Tambo Memorial Lecture that, the ANC will ensure that does not happen even during the 2024 general elections.

Currently, in major municipalities, coalition governments continue to crumble, leaving residents without access to service delivery.

Mantashe says the ANC has to perform better than this. "Steenhuisen is trying the impossible. He's trying to organise all apartheid parties and parties of Bantustans to form a group that will defeat the ANC. Obviously, this should not happen, it should not happen. And we have a duty to ensure that it doesn't happen in honour of Oliver Tambo."

President Cyril Ramaphosa says ANC wants to regain the people's confidence in the local sphere of government by adopting guidelines that govern coalitions. He was speaking at the end of the governing party's four-day National Executive Committee meeting in Boksburg east of Johannesburg on Monday. Currently, the country has 80 hung municipalities and almost all of them are governed through coalitions but are ineffective and dysfunctional. Ramapahosa says the newly adopted framework will ensure an effective local sphere of government that prioritises the provision of service delivery.