Ramaphosa ‘is going nowhere’: damaged ANC begins hard bargaining - TimesLIVE

The ANC has moved to paper over the cracks that were beginning to show after its poor showing in last week’s local government elections.

On Thursday the national executive committee (NEC) of the ANC, which bled votes in almost all urban metros, held exploratory talks to finalise a post-election survival strategy.

Despite increasing pressure for heads to roll after the poor showing, four sources in the ANC NEC’s meeting in Boksburg confirmed that by 5pm no-one stood up to call for President Cyril Ramaphosa to resign, or for the NEC to be dissolved.

Instead, the sources, who did not want to be named as they are not authorised to comment, said the discussions remained strictly focused on coalition options and adopting a mandate for the party’s coalition negotiators.

In the bruising November 4 local government elections, the ANC’s national vote share dropped from 45.59% in 2021 to 30.76%, leaving the party negotiating from a significantly weakened position across dozens of hung councils.

Among those calling for the ANC’s leadership to stand back was former president Thabo Mbeki, who urged the national leaders to take accountability for the poor show and go into opposition while they reflect and rebuild its structures and support base.

Earlier in the day, party spokesperson Mahlengi Bengu brushed off swirling rumours about Ramaphosa’s exit, insisting the party’s top brass would not show him the door soon.

“The president is going nowhere. There is no pressure on the part of this leadership for the president to leave,” she told reporters.

“The president ran and led the campaign with excellence. I’m sure all of you believe that,” Bengu said.

Thursday’s marathon NEC, expected to continue late into the night, is likely to deliver a formal response to the DA, whom the ANC met on Wednesday, according to sources from both parties.

According to insiders, the DA is pushing for a grand coalition with the ANC, but highly placed sources suggested the ANC would not agree to the DA’s brazen opening proposal to lead most South African metros.

The outcomes of the coalition negotiations could also have a big impact on the government of national unity if the two parties forming the backbone of the government of national unity (GNU) fail to agree.

The DA backed Ramaphosa after the 2024 general election to form the GNU because the ANC had a bigger share of the votes, albeit not enough to govern.

The DA apparently argued the same principle should apply this time around, and the party with the highest vote in each metro should claim the mayoral chain.

This formula would hand the DA leadership in Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and Nelson Mandela Bay, while leaving the ANC at the helm of Mangaung and Buffalo City.

According to Business Day sources, three options were the most talked about at the NEC meeting.

The first one, which faced stiff resistance from many members, was the replication of the grand coalition model. This entailed partnering with the DA to secure stable metro majorities.

In the second option, some in the ANC NEC argued for teaming up with ActionSA, the EFF, MK party, and the Patriotic Alliance (PA) to retain control of metros such as eThekwini. But many other NEC members dismissed going this route, saying it would result in “transactional politics”. They warned that past pacts with smaller parties only cannibalised ANC support.

In the third option some NEC members advocated for stepping back from municipal power altogether and going into opposition. Proponents argued that sitting on the opposition benches is the only way to purge transactional politics and rebuild the movement.

But others cautioned that a similar retreat in Cape Town stripped the party of factionalism at the cost of long-term electoral irrelevance.

Rather than adopting a rigid national formula, the ANC is expected to revise its 2024 coalition framework in favour of municipality-by-municipality deals.

Bhengu confirmed that local dynamics — not a “one-size-fits-all” mandate — would guide negotiations, noting that a governing package for eThekwini would differ sharply from one in Buffalo City.

Marathon meetings between the MK party and the IFP happened on Thursday, while the SACP and EFF also held separate talks.

Very busy at Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg today. Council of the Left with SACP, MKP and EFF having its own assessment of the elections and the way forward on coalitions. The ANC NEC is on the other end of the hotel having its own meeting @BDliveSA pic.twitter.com/KynHO5yPDB

Political analyst Louw Nel noted that a DA-ANC pact in Gauteng could easily be replicated in Nelson Mandela Bay and Mangaung while helping both parties block the MK party — which finished first with 38.3% — from taking the mayoral chain in eThekwini alongside the IFP. Such an arrangement would also reinforce the national GNU and KwaZulu-Natal’s provincial unity government.

On Thursday, the DA held parallel talks with ActionSA, the IFP and the PA, while the EFF, MK Party, and the SACP convened separately at the same Boksburg venue to co-ordinate their own strategies.

Parties are racing against a strict statutory clock. Wednesday’s publication of election results in the Government Gazette triggered a 14-day window requiring all municipal councils to hold their inaugural sittings and elect office-bearers by November 26.

To prevent instability while the Municipal Coalitions Bill remains before parliament, co-operative governance & traditional affairs minister Velenkosini Hlabisa issued new interim coalition guidelines this week.

The framework urges parties to sign binding written agreements on policy priorities and dispute resolution, bars political interference in tenders and administrative appointments, and warns against handing mayoral chains to minor “kingmaker” parties — a practice Hlabisa noted has repeatedly crippled local service delivery.