‘We will never go to bed with the ANC’: Civic organisations hold keys to Emfuleni’s future - News24

Negotiations are at an advanced stage between the DA and two civic organisations holding the deciding cards in the hung Emfuleni Local Municipality as the parties scramble to form a coalition government.

The DA, which grew its share from 26.91% in the 2021 local government elections to 40.9% in last week’s polls, needs coalition partners to govern the 45-ward municipality after no party secured an outright majority.

Active Citizens of South Africa (ACSA) and Tau Dia Rora Cultural and Traditional Lekhotla both began as civic movements before registering as political parties.

Tau Dia Rora focused on initiation schools and traditional matters, the youth, elderly, LGBTQI matters, school bullying, gangsterism and crime, while ACSA emerged as a community-driven initiative to address the municipality’s failing sewer network.

Tau Dia Rora secured one ward and one proportional representation (PR) seat, while ACSA attained two PR seats.

ACSA co-founder Edwin Kele said the organisation was in advanced negotiations with the DA among other parties.

Speaking to News24 on Wednesday, Kele added that the organisation began its journey by freely helping the Emfuleni community.

“ACSA was formed in 2024, but we decided this year to take part in the elections after seeing the plight of service delivery and after some engagement with our people.”

ACSA has unblocked more than 1 000 sewer manholes, prompting the municipality to take it to court.

Kele claimed the court action was the municipality’s attempt to prevent ACSA from assisting desperate and distraught families, but the organisation did not let the threat stop it.

“We continued with our work, and we will continue doing so because we are part of government. We continue receiving calls to unblock sewer networks and are becoming a household name in Emfuleni,” he said.

Regarding the local government results, Kele said ACSA had secured two seats, giving it the key to deciding who would run the municipality.

“We are proud and happy for those who voted and believed in us,” he added.

“People understand politics. They are worried about the future of their children.”

He added that ACSA was still at the negotiating table with the DA.

When asked if the party was willing to go to bed with the ANC, Kele replied: “We don’t anticipate that and would rather remain on opposition benches.”

He said the ANC had approached the organisation about a meeting.

“We convinced people to vote for us. It doesn’t make sense that we will take our two seats to the ANC that we once belonged to. We will never go to bed with the ANC. We would rather remain in opposition. We know the ANC. Not unless we are interested in our pockets; then we can join the ANC. We don’t want them. We don’t want to sell our souls,” Kele added.

“If it were possible, we wanted to unite all smaller parties and change things in Emfuleni. At the moment, we haven’t reached an agreement with the DA or anybody. We remain an opposition party, although the DA has formally approached us and our negotiations are at an advanced stage. We want to deliver the promises we made to our people and bring changes in their lives.”

Tau Dia Rora’s PR councillor and former ANC Ward 28 councillor, Cedric Davids, told News24 that its negotiations with the DA were also at an advanced stage, although the ANC had been constantly contacting it to request a meeting.

Davids was dismissed from the ANC earlier this year after he joined Tau Dia Rora, leaving Ward 28 vacant. The ward was ultimately won by the DA in a by-election on 27 May, making history for the party by securing a ward in a black suburb for the first time.

Tau Dia Rora was formed by Phehello Mollo in 1996 as a civic organisation focused on traditional matters, including initiation schools, and grew.

“In March 2023, we officially registered to participate in elections. Our first stance was during a by-election in 2025 and again in 2026 at Ward 28,” Davids said.

He added that upon being dismissed by the ANC, he found a new home in his current organisation.

“My dismissal was on social media, and I was insulted. They lost Ward 28 to the DA.”

Davids said although they did not win a ward, they managed to secure a PR seat.

Davids said heading the elections campaign for his organisation had opened his eyes.

The entity contested elections in Emfuleni, Ekurhuleni, Metsimaholo, Tshwane and the City of Johannesburg.

“We have achieved a PR seat. We were self-funded by our more than 200 members because funding comes with capture. We took money from our pockets and contributed to challenge these elections. We are thankful for our results.

“We didn’t have a municipal ward to defend. We are new kids who came out with something. We are not a political party. We represent masses including traditional leaders, the youth, the disabled, the LGBTQI+ community,” he said.

Davids claimed Tau Dia Rora had a plan to defend residents.

“We have hung Emfuleni. We are in talks with some parties and have had advanced discussions with a few, although we are not a political party. We are not going to be subjected to politics of the left or right. We need to deliver services to our people, and the will is very clear.”

He said their structure would continue engaging with others, although discussions were at an advanced stage with some parties.

“We want to advance clean governance, proper financial management, ethical government, sound financial governance and collect more revenue in Emfuleni. Residents are buying directly from Eskom; Rand Water has attached the municipal account and taken over municipal operations. There is a shortage of revenue in Emfuleni.”

News24 has extensively exposed how the embattled municipality failed to control its purse, resulting in Eskom and Rand Water repeatedly attaching its bank account.

News24 understands that the organisations have not started negotiating with the ANC and have been locked in meetings with the DA, led by its mayoral candidate, Kingsol Chabalala.

Sources in the DA in Sedibeng told News24 that they had serious talks with the two organisations, among a few parties, and had ruled out the suggestion that the ANC could win their support.

“We can’t campaign against the ANC and later go to bed with them. We are negotiating with smaller parties that are not greedy and agree with what we all want for the people of Emfuleni. We believe the two are resolute on service delivery and clean governance, and together we will free the people of Emfuleni from the shackles of poor service delivery as they have asked us to do,” the DA source said.

The DA is only awaiting the go-ahead from its national leadership.

Davids said Tau Dia Rora had made some proposals to its counterparts about Eskom and Rand Water matters. He insinuated that the organisation’s talks with the DA were at an advanced stage.

“We will not be saying no to a party like the DA. Some of the changes we both want might be for the better. People want to see our organisation working.

“We will go [into coalition] with people who fight for clean governance and professionalism. We were belittled, and we showed them that we carry the deciding vote. We were undermined, and we are going to take the right decision for the people of Emfuleni. We are not going to mess up. Failure is not our message,” he added.

“We are not going to subject ourselves to black and white politics or racism, because if the people of Emfuleni were focused on black and white and racist politics, they wouldn’t have voted for a party they assume is white, especially in the townships. We are going to acclimatise with what our community in the Vaal aspires. We have a seat, and we will have to choose the right table that will reflect the wishes of the people of Emfuleni,” Davids said.

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