ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe has derided the Democratic Alliance-led coalition governments, saying that they were a “colonial” scheme with the sole intention to weaken the ANC.
The DA has formed coalition governments with the Congress of the People, United Democratic Movement, Freedom Front Plus, African Christian Democratic Party and the Inkatha Freedom Party, and has been supported by the Economic Freedom Fighters.
Speaking to journalists at the ANC headquarters in Luthuli House in Johannesburg, Mantashe said the coalitions “are not based on principle of serving the people but rather a common desire to remove the national liberation movement from power at all costs”.
He said funders with “deep pockets” were dictating the form and substance of the coalition arrangements like they did in the case of the failed merger between the DA and Mamphela Ramphele’s Agang ahead of the 2014 general elections.
“Members and supporters of the ANC must not be distracted by this ‘sound and fury signifying nothing’ from opposition parties,” he said.
Since last week, municipalities across the country started constituting governments, with a sharp focus falling on the 27 hung councils throughout the country
The DA-led coalition has to date taken control of Nelson Mandela Bay metro in the Eastern Cape as well as Tshwane and Johannesburg in Gauteng.
To salvage its pride, the ANC was counting on retaining Ekurhuleni – where the inaugural sitting was under way while Mantashe briefed the media.
Mantashe said the ANC did not lose the municipal elections and remains the “majority party” in South Africa.
“We won the majority of seats nationwide, with 54.2% of the final vote. The ANC is now the government of choice in 161 municipalities out of 213 across the country,” he said.
He said the “overwhelming support” for the ANC reaffirmed the voters’ “confidence in our project of fundamental social and economic transformation”.
Similarly, said Mantashe, the DA did not win the elections.
“We have however for the first time suffered a serious setback in a number of municipalities. This includes some metros where there wasn’t an outright winner”.
He said the situation “represents a reversal of our democratic gains and reassertion of power by our erstwhile colonisers”.
“They are characterised by inconsistent messaging that is devoid of any revolutionary commitment to defeat the real enemy of the people, monopoly capital.”
Mantashe said the “oratory of rhetoric is used to project a revolutionary agenda when in reality the coalitions are a stance dictated by funders”.