Gauteng coalition clock ticks: ActionSA vetoes Zille and Brink as ANC weighs a DA pact
South Africa's parties have less than two weeks to put mayors in place across hung councils, and the fight over Johannesburg and Tshwane is coming down to two names. ActionSA says it is open to working with the Democratic Alliance, but not if Helen Zille or Cilliers Brink is wearing the mayoral chain.
ActionSA's red line
Beaumont was blunt in a post on X on Friday.
ActionSA does not have a DA problem, we have a Helen Zille and Cilliers Brink problem. What we will not do to the South African people is install mayors who have failed them before or broken every working coalition they were part of.
Mashaba's 7 November letter to Hill-Lewis proposed that he and Zille both step aside in Johannesburg, with the DA picking a new candidate and ActionSA taking the deputy mayor's seat. In Tshwane, Brink would give up his council seat and the DA would back ActionSA's Nasiphi Moya, IOL reported.
The history is raw. ActionSA walked out of the DA-led Tshwane coalition in September 2024, Brink was ousted in a no-confidence vote and Moya became mayor the following month, Joburg Etc noted.
The numbers in Johannesburg
| Party | Johannesburg vote share |
|---|---|
| DA | 34.79% |
| ANC | 20.25% |
| ActionSA | 16.27% |
Source: Joburg Etc. ActionSA took about 22% in Tshwane.
Beaumont told SABC News that ActionSA is open to working with either the DA or the ANC, subject to conditions, and that several parties favour Mashaba and Moya as mayors, Briefly News reported.
Inside the ANC's Boksburg meeting
The ANC's vote share fell from 45.59% in 2021 to 30.76% this month. Four sources inside the NEC meeting confirmed that by 5pm on Thursday no one had called for President Cyril Ramaphosa to resign, according to a Business Day report also carried by TimesLive. Earlier, spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu said: "The President is going nowhere."
According to Business Day sources, three options were the most talked about at the NEC meeting.
| Option | What it means | Reception inside the NEC |
|---|---|---|
| Grand coalition with the DA | Partner the DA for stable metro majorities | Faced stiff resistance from many members |
| Smaller-party pact | Team up with ActionSA, the EFF, MK and the Patriotic Alliance, for example to keep metros such as eThekwini | Many dismissed it as "transactional politics" |
| Opposition | Step back from municipal power to rebuild | Others cautioned, citing Cape Town, that it could mean long-term electoral irrelevance |
Source: Business Day / TimesLive, 13 November.
Insiders also said the DA is pushing for the party with the most votes in each metro to take the mayoralty, a formula that would hand it Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and Nelson Mandela Bay, the same report said.
Bhengu said local dynamics, not a one-size-fits-all mandate, would guide the talks.
The deadline
Publication of the results in the Government Gazette on Wednesday started a 14-day window for councils to meet and elect office-bearers by 26 November, the Business Day/TimesLive report said. Co-operative governance minister Velenkosini Hlabisa has issued interim coalition guidelines urging parties to sign binding written agreements.