Kingmaker politics is completely undemocratic – Zille

Democratic Alliance (DA) Johannesburg mayoral candidate and chairperson of the party’s Federal Council, Helen Zille, has called for threshold legislation to be implemented before the next local government elections.

Warning it is necessary to prevent “undemocratic outcomes,” she spoke to Newsday against the backdrop of Johannesburg’s notoriously fragmented council, where coalition politics have often outweighed policy priorities.

The city’s political instability has been building for nearly a decade. The 2016 municipal elections marked a significant erosion of African National Congress (ANC) dominance, producing a splintered council.

By 2021, a record 18 parties were represented in the 270-seat council, a reflection of South Africa’s mixed 50/50 ward and proportional-representation system, which amplifies the influence of small parties.

The result has been a government reliant on constant deal-making, even as Johannesburg struggles with severe service delivery challenges. Since 2021, the metro has seen six administrations.

The DA-led Multi-Party Charter briefly governed under Dr Mpho Phalatse. The multi-party coalition, comprising the DA, ActionSA, IFP, FF Plus, PA, ACDP, Cope, UIM and ATM, collapsed in 2022 after internal disputes.

The fallout saw the PA side with the ANC, EFF and others to elect a Cope Speaker, paving the way for Phalatse’s ousting.

The ANC then formed an alliance with the EFF and other smaller parties, with the ANC’s Dada Morero briefly serving as mayor.

Then, Phalatse regained control after a court found her ousting to be irregular, but was again ousted in 2023 by the ANC and EFF partnering with coalition partners the Patriotic Alliance and smaller parties.

In a striking example of disproportionate influence, Al Jama-ah, which got less than 1% in the election, secured the mayoralty in 2023.

This saw the three-seat party have a string of short-lived administrations, including Thapelo Amad and Kabelo Gwamanda with support from the ANC, EFF, Al Jama-ah, AIC, AHC, ATM, Good, UDM, PAC, Cope and APC.

In August 2024, ANC’s Morero came in with support from the EFF, PA, ActionSA and multiple other smaller parties – however several of those smaller parties, including Al Jama-ah, have since submitted a motion of no confidence against him.

Patronage over policy – Zille

Zille argues that this fluid political landscape rewards patronage over policy. She said minor parties act as kingmakers, trading support for executive posts, while repeated no-confidence motions have paralysed governance.

With no party close to the 136-seat majority, Zille says that parties with single-digit representation wield outsized influence, leaving the city trapped in cycles of messy horse trading and instability.

“The ANC has got very interesting ways of enticing your coalition partners to cross over to them and that is what has happened, you had revolving door of mayors.” said Zille.

“We were in once, out once, in once, out once, in the most extraordinary way because the smaller parties kept on changing sides. And they do that to advance their position.”

“Every time they do a new agreement, they demand an extra pound of flesh. We weren’t going to do the politics of extortion and bribery and the ANC is very good at that,” she added.

She believes electoral thresholds could limit such distortions, ensuring that council representation better reflects voter intent and promotes more stable, accountable governance.

Asked whether she worries that smaller political parties will call the shots post 2026, Zille described how this defines much of the city’s recent politics.

“This happened before when Al Jama-ah demanded the mayoral position and got it from a position where they couldn’t even get 1% of the vote in Johannesburg,” said Zille.

“It’s a completely undemocratic outcome when a party that can’t get 1% of the vote gets the mayor and is in a position to decide whether the ANC’s in a majority or the DA.”

“That is the power of that swing vote, which doesn’t have to be even 1% to change the government. That is a completely undemocratic system,” she added.

Proposed legislation

Earlier this year, the DA’s George Michalakis tabled the Local Government: Municipal Structures Amendment Bill in Parliament, which Zille hopes will pass before the next election.

It looks to introduce an electoral threshold to strengthen stability in municipal councils.

Thresholds are “in place in functional democracies that work on proportional representation all over the world, which says that if you want to have any seats in the sphere of government, you’ve got to meet a certain threshold of votes,” said Zille.

Michalakis said that currently, small parties often gain single seats through surplus vote calculations, allowing them to act as “kingmakers” and destabilise coalitions, which can undermine service delivery.

“We’re proposing 2%… which is still very modest. We’ll see how it works out. If a party can’t get 2% in Johannesburg, they shouldn’t be able to swing the government,” said Zille.

The Bill aims to prevent such “back door” entries by requiring parties to secure at least one full seat quota plus one vote before qualifying for seat allocation.

Similar thresholds are used internationally in countries like Germany, Denmark, and New Zealand to promote stable governance.

It is proposed that only parties or councils meeting the minimum vote requirement will be considered for surplus seat calculations, and fractional results will not entitle a party or council to further representation.

Numerous parties, particularly those with small representation, have slammed the bill as “undemocratic” and “not representational of a multi-party democracy.”

However, Zille said that “obviously those tiny parties who’ve been able to be the tail that wags the dog won’t like it, but that’s just how it is.”

More broadly, the Government has embarked on a bigger process of reviewing the 1998 White Paper on Local Government.

It is expected to be followed by a series of legislative reforms to reshape local government and the multilevel governance system, at large.

Tinashe Carlton Chigwata, Associate Professor at the Dullah Omar Institute based at the University of the Western Cape, wrote that it is unclear how this broad reform process will impact, if any, on the upcoming local government elections.

“Once the new councils are in place, their immediate priority must be on delivering services and development to communities, but this will only happen if they are stable,” said Chigwata.

“It is, therefore, urgent that the government fast-track the legislative reforms aimed at stabilizing municipalities and ensuring they can serve their people.”

Watch Helen Zille’s full interview with Newsday