Africa-Press – South-Africa. ActionSA says the DA is suffering from “multiple personality disorder” after the party distanced itself from its former Johannesburg coalition partners, by making a unilateral decision to recommend former Johannesburg mayor Mpho Phalatse as their preferred mayoral candidate for the City.
The DA on Tuesday announced that it has decided to return Phalatse to the metro as their mayoral candidate. This decision will be made official on 2 May when a special sitting will be held in the Johannesburg council to elect a new mayor for the country’s economic hub.
The move has been criticised by the DA’s former coalition partners with ActionSA taking a lead in condemning the move.
In a statement, ActionSA expressed disappointment in the DA’s “unilateral announcement” of Phalatse as a mayoral candidate.
“This is inconsistent with the sensible sentiment expressed by DA leader John Steenhuisen in announcing the moonshot pact. As a direct result of the DA’s dismissal of the Patriotic Alliance (PA), Dr Phalatse has no path to being elected mayor, and the announcement does not serve the purpose of replacing the ANC and EFF as per the stated intention of the moonshot pact.”
ActionSA’s national spokesperson, Michael Beaumont, disclosed that the ACDP, United Independent Movement, and IFP would meet on Saturday evening to discuss a way forward, including their recommendations for the city’s mayoral candidates.
Out of respect and mutual agreement over the considered mayoral candidate, which has yet to be confirmed, Beaumont said he would await the conclusive results from the meeting.
“We have made recommendations, and other parties have engaged with those recommendations, but ultimately, that will be part of the subject this evening, and I want to ensure we treat our parties with respect and engage with them first.”
Beaumont said Steenhuisen’s letter addressed to opposition parties collapsed coalition talks. The letter delivered on 22 April expressed the DA’s unwillingness to collaborate with the PA unless they completely cut ties with the ANC.
“It’s like a multiple personality disorder, isn’t it?” Beaumont said, adding that the one week the DA proposes holding hands, joining together, and putting the past behind them and the next it sends a letter collapsing coalition talks.
He said:
Despite the DA distancing itself from the potential alternative coalition, Beaumont said ActionSA remained “open” to the pact. Beaumont added that party leader Herman Mashaba has, however, written to Steenhuisen.
Beaumont said Mashaba’s letter raised concerns about issues relating to the pact and asked for context to understand the recent events better.
Although DA is open to interacting with its former coalition partners it maintains that it would only engage with parties that have completely distanced themselves from the ANC and EFF.
Speaking to News24, DA Gauteng leader Fred Nel, said it would only engage with a mayor not from the ANC-EFF and PA, urging parties to support Phalatse, to bring stability and avoid “another Thapelo Amad-like experiment”.
He added that Phalatse was nominated due to her prior experience as mayor and the party “believe she will be the best option to bring stability to the government in Joburg given her experience”.
The DA’s reasons for nominating Phalatse without consulting with potential coalition partners and how it plans to attain votes to secure victory remain to be determined.
ACDP Gauteng leader Dulton Adams told News24 that the City needed more unity and an individual to unite all involved actors.
He expressed uncertainty about whether a mayor would be elected at the special sitting on Tuesday, which he considered “problematic”.
“What Johannesburg needs is a unifier. What Johannesburg needs is somebody who can galvanise all the people and parties in the City together and focus on the citizens. The four million citizens.”
Adams detailed that the party has decided to support the mayoral candidate recommendation of ActionSA’s Gauteng spokesperson Funzi Ngobeni.
The end goal for the ACDP and ActionSA alike is to bring stability and security to the City.
“We believe that we want a government that firstly can stabilise Johannesburg; that’s the first and foremost goal that we want to achieve. The City of Johannesburg is totally unstable, and we want to get that right. Firstly, we want to get to a majority government if that is possible,” said Adams.
About the moonshot pact, Adams maintains that it was “premature” of the DA to have adopted a “big brother” approach adding it would not solely join a coalition to remove the ANC-EFF from the government.
“It was premature of John Steenhuisen to announce that parties must just follow and they are the leaders and the only party that can save South Africa. We also don’t want to go into any kind of pact or coalition where it seems like all they want to do is remove the ANC and EFF. South Africa faces more challenges.”
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