DA enjoins rival parties to block ‘doomsday’ ANC-EFF coalition

South Africa’s main opposition party said it will seek a pact with like-minded rivals to secure a majority in next year’s elections in order to sideline the ruling African National Congress and the radical Economic Freedom Fighters.

“The Democratic Alliance needs coalitions for the time being if we want to take power at national level, as we must,” said John Steenhuisen, who was reelected as party leader at a meeting near Johannesburg on Sunday.

The pact will enable different organisations to work together and “retain their own identities, while bringing an end to the petty squabbles and divisions that only benefit the ANC,” he said.

The ANC has governed Africa’s most industrialised economy since the end of White-minority rule in 1994, but opinion polls show it risks losing its majority in 2024 — a backlash over its failure to tackle record power outages and rampant poverty and unemployment.

That would force it to enlist the support of one or more opposition groups if it wants to continue governing.

One alternative would be for it to enter into a partnership with Julius Malema’s EFF, South Africa’s third-biggest party, which favors the nationalisation of banks, mines and land.

Such a tie-up — which has already taken place in several municipalities with disastrous consequences — must be avoided at all costs, according to Steenhuisen.

“It will be doomsday for South Africa,” he said.

“The DA will make it our number-one priority and do absolutely everything in our power to prevent an ANC-EFF doomsday coalition from taking power.”

The DA garnered 20.8% support in the last national vote in 2019, the ANC 57.5% and the EFF 10.8%. While Steenhuisen previously indicated that his party would consider cooperating with the ANC, that option now appears to be off the table.

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The ANC has yet to spell out what it will do should it relinquish its majority. A panel led by David Makhura, the former premier of the central Gauteng province, drafted a discussion paper on coalitions and the ANC’s top decision-making body will discuss the document when it next meets.

The DA allied with several rivals — including the EFF — after a 2021 municipal vote to wrest control of major urban centers from the ANC, but the agreements have proved unstable and power has since changed hands in Johannesburg, the economic hub, and other towns.

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Opposition party leaders will have to come together to iron out their differences, according to Steenhuisen.

They need to agree on how the opposition “ensures that the mightiest possible offer is placed before voters next year to change the face of our government and the fate of our country,” he said.

The DA has learned from its mistakes, and there were some good examples of it cooperating with like-minded rivals, including instances where they had agreed to abstained in municipal by-elections and encouraged their supporters to vote for each other, he said.

Steenhuisen, 47, has been on a drive to reunite and grow his party after several of its high-profile Black leaders left. He secured a second term as leader after fending off a challenge from former Johannesburg Mayor Mpho Phalatse.

Helen Zille, a former DA leader, was reelected as chairwoman of the party’s federal council, while Ivan Meyer was reappointed as federal chairman.