In an attempt to quell recent tensions, the Democratic Alliance (DA) and Freedom Front Plus (VF+) have reaffirmed their commitment to cooperation in Western Cape coalitions.

National party leaders John Steenhuisen and Dr. Pieter Groenewald met to discuss the growing instability within local coalitions, in a province with 16 hung councils. Both parties acknowledged that the unstable relationships in ANC-led coalitions are harmful to communities and emphasized the need to stabilize the coalitions in which they are involved.

The meeting comes after the blowout between the two parties in the aftermath of the realignment in Oudtshoorn, where DA’s violation of coalition agreements and refusal to negotiate or consult with coalition partners or submit to reasonable requests for accountability for the behaviour of the DA mayor led to their ejection from government.

The VF+, after having organised a vote of no confidence in the mayor, attempted to reach out to the DA to form a new coalition with a different mayor, but were rebuffed. DA regional chair Venolea Fortuin threatened to cut all coalition agreements with the VF+ under her ambit.

But after the DA refused to come to the negotiating table, the VF+ flipped the script and made an open invitation, to which all other parties in the council acceded. The DA had been pushed out.

In response, the DA issued statements, swallowed up and repeated by News24, that the VF+ had hatched a plot to unseat the DA across the Western Cape in favour of the ANC. While the DA believes they ought to form coalitions with the ANC wherever they deem it necessary, they have been outraged at the VF+ stepping up to the change in the rules of the game.

But the fallout has slightly deeper roots than the new multi-party dispensation since the recent general election.

Since early August, the coalitions in Oudtshoorn and Langeberg have collapsed, following disputes over budget votes, and accusations of betrayal and abuse of powers.

Despite these challenges, the leadership of both parties has committed to mending their partnership. The disagreement has the potential to hurt both parties, since the DA has the partisan support of the major media outlets, and can ensure gentle coverage of even their worst conduct, while the VF+ has the capacity to make the DA’s intransigence visible and the DA look weak and hypocritical by ventilating issues of corruption and maladministration which can be difficult to spin on social media.

The joint statement issued by the DA and VF+ has announced that meetings will follow with community leaders in the hung municipalities to determine the nature of the disagreements and grievances and iron out their differences.

They hope to restore trust between the two parties, whose collaboration in coalitions has historically been extremely stable, and left the VF+ an almost invisible partner.

What these new negotiations have apparently achieved, is to make the VF+ a visible political factor, and one which has the potential, should they choose to act boldly, to alter the public perception of the DA.

But the stakes for the party are now both higher and harder to define, and the risk of appearing opportunistic will always accompany the introduction of new means of political leverage.

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