GOOD Statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
4 August 2023
The National Dialogue on Coalitions has been exposed as nothing more than a very expensive talk-shop after the Deputy Minister for Cooperative Government & Traditional Affairs (COGTA) disclosed during a late afternoon panel discussion that coalition legislation has already been drafted.
It is clear that the ANC and DA have already made their own behind-closed-door coalition deal.
Both party’s inputs today, especially on thresholds, were the same and are already in the Bill.
The Deputy President convened this National Dialogue to prepare a Framework for Coalitions, with as much consensus as possible, and hundreds of delegates from political parties, civil society, academia and the diplomatic corps, gathered at UWC to discuss the parameters of this framework.
However, the revelation by the Deputy Minister that a Bill has already been drafted has made a mockery of our participation which we have done in good faith.
Parks Tau indicated that the Bill already provided for an electoral threshold of 1% of the vote before a party qualified for a seat in a Council. Thresholds were widely rejected at today’s dialogue with only the ANC and DA supporting this restriction.
All the other parties rejected thresholds as undemocratic and unconstitutional. Our constitution protects the rights of the voters to vote for the party of their choice and for the system of proportional representation to give effect to that choice.
Tau also indicated that the Bill regulated that motions of no confidence could only be tabled every two years. The restrictions on motions of no confidence have also been widely criticised during the earlier contributions to the dialogue.
Although parties are entitled to differ on how best to support coalition governments, and the government is entitled to govern and introduce legislation like this Bill, the existence of the Bill was a surprise turn of events and raises questions about the purpose of the Dialogue.
GOOD regards the imposition of a legislated threshold as a violation of the spirit and letter of the Constitution and we gave notice today that we will oppose this in the courts if we need to.
When we made that statement, we did not know that it was a done deal, already in a Bill, intended to protect the ANC and DA from electoral threats from their own fragmentation.
Thresholds are intended to suppress new parties from entering a free and free playing field.
The ANC and the DA cannot get away with their collusion to close down democratic contestation for their comfort and convenience.
The existence of a Bill, already drafted but not presented to the Dialogue to discuss and debate it, makes a farce out of this elaborate National Dialogue.
Media Enquiries:
Brett Herron, GOOD Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
Cell: 082 518 3264
Email: bretth@forgood.org.za
Samantha Jackson, GOOD Acting Media Manager
Cell: 083 550 9875
Email: media@forgood.org.za