GOOD Statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
15 June 2023
The GOOD Party welcomes the decision by the High Court to block the Eastern Cape Government from changing the type of municipality in Nelson Mandela Bay from an Executive Mayoral system to a Mayoral Committee system.
GOOD joined the DA in bringing an urgent application, in the High Court, earlier this year seeking the court’s intervention to stop another attempt by the ANC to grab and hold onto power in the Metro.
The attempt by the Provincial Government had followed the collapse of the ANC-led coalition governing the Metro which was characterized by instability, dysfunctionality, and internal factionalism.
For this reason, GOOD had decided to throw its weight behind the DA-led multi-party coalition government at the time.
Rather than accepting the principle of majority rule in the Metro, Eastern Cape Local Government MEC Zolile Williams decided to scrap the Mayoral Executive system using Section 12 of the Municipal Structures Act.
This would have paved the way for a collective executive system, which takes powers away from the Mayor and instead gives it to a committee. With the ANC and DA holding an equal number of seats in the Metro, they would have shared equal powers – a recipe for continued instability.
In Nelson Mandela Bay, rather than see the ANC-led coalition legally booted out, the MEC irrationally decided that where no party obtains an outright majority, democracy requires, that they both be included in the executive structure of the government concerned.
That is not how multi-party democracy works.
Coalitions are a natural consequence of a multi-party democratic system. Coalition governments have been proven to work internationally, but they don’t work without trust, compromise and good faith between the coalition partners.
Unfortunately some parties in the DA-led coalition abandoned the coalition and in the meantime the government in Nelson Mandela Bay changed again.
We will wait to see if the current government, led by Mayor Gary Van Niekerk, will accede to the change of government system proposed by the MEC but interdicted by the courts.
We guess the threat of a Sec 12 change in governing system will destabilize the current coalition because it will mean the loss of positions for many who make up the current government.
South Africa desperately needs stable municipalities, rooted in respect for democracy and service delivery, run by stable and functional coalitions where required.
Media Enquiries:
Brett Herron, GOOD Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
Cell: 082 518 3264
Email: bretth@forgood.org.za
Janke Tolmay, GOOD Media Manager
Cell: 073 367 1223
Email: janke@forgood.org.za