An announcement by the Democratic Alliance (DA) that they have formed a majority coalition in the City of Johannesburg that includes Islamic political party Al Jama-ah appears to have been premature.
Al Jama-ah’s provincial secretary, Kabelo Gwamanda, told Africa News Global on Sunday: “The DA is lying. There is no agreement with the DA. There is no coalition agreement.”
DA mayor Mpho Phalatse announced her mayoral committee on Monday, which included three MMCs from ActionSA and one each from IFP, COPE, ACDP and Freedom Front Plus (FF+).
An article in Afrikaans weekly Rapport on Sunday then added the further detail that in order to create a majority government in Johannesburg with at least 136 council seats, the chairperson of the coalition negotiations, former FF+ leader Corne Mulder, reportedly told the newspaper they had received the support of numerous other smaller parties, including the United Independent Movement (with one seat), African People’s Congress (one seat) and Al Jama-ah (three seats). They were reportedly still chasing the one seat of the African Transformation Movement (ATM) in order to reach the critical 136 number.
Al Jama-ah’s supposed inclusion raised eyebrows since they have been openly critical of the DA for what they perceive to be its Zionist stance towards Palestine, while Mayor Phalatse was fired during former mayor Herman Mashaba’s term for declaring the City of Johannesburg a friend of Israel. She is presumably still pro-Israel, having never distanced herself from her views, although she did apologise in 2018 for having declared the City a friend of Israel.
Contacted for comment, Al Jama-ah’s leader in Gauteng, Thapelo Amad, strongly denied that there was any truth to Rapport’s article. He said his party had never been approached by the DA to go into a coalition, nor had they approached the DA.
When called for comment, ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba said that, as far as he knew, Al Jama-ah was indeed part of the coalition and their name had been included at the press conference where Phalatse announced her government, with Al Jama-ah not disputing that in the days that followed.
He added, however, that he had not personally engaged with Al Jama-ah.
Gwamanda said he had confirmed with his party president, Ganief Hendricks, that there was no such thing as a national agreement with the DA. He said the only party that had invited them to coalition talks was ActionSA. However, Al Jama-ah’s president never attended that meeting because of “the Zionist stance of the DA, because that’s what they truly stand for”.
“The Rapport article is unfounded, irresponsible and the peddling of fake news,” said Gwamanda.
Rapport told Africa News Global that they stood by their article and it was based on a national five-year agreement that had supposedly been signed between the leadership of the DA and Al Jama-ah. Al Jama-ah, in response, asked for anyone to produce evidence of such an agreement.
DA Federal Executive chairperson Helen Zille told Africa News Global that there was a coalition agreement with Al Jama-ah, but then seemed surprised when told that Al Jama-ah itself was denying it. She asked for more time to get back to this publication with a response. Her further comments will be added once they are forthcoming.
Without Al Jama-ah or ATM, the DA-led coalition has only 132 seats, four short of a majority.
A DA insider who asked not to be named said: “The reality for the DA in Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni is that the only way for them to remain in power is with the support of the EFF. But that will come at a big price. The EFF is going to want something for that ongoing support. We are just fooling ourselves if we think otherwise. Many of us told the FedEx to walk away from this thing. Have we not learnt from 2016? That’s the main issue here.”
