The ANC in Gauteng says it will not enter into a coalition should it not secure an outright majority in next month’s elections.
The province’s head of elections, Lebogang Maile, said the party was not entertaining any talk of coalitions as it was confident it would emerge victorious.
“As ANC Gauteng we don’t believe in coalitions,” said Maile, who is also the province’s economic development MEC.
“We are campaigning to win. If it means we must be in the opposition, if there was some miracle that will happen that we lose, we can’t, we will have to be in the opposition. I don’t think we must be so obsessed with governing and running government that we are prepared to compromise our principles”.
He said the ANC would inform the party’s national leadership that the province does not believe in coalitions.
“In Tshwane we had to stop our regional executive committee that wanted to contest but we said no. As a matter of principle we don’t believe in coalitions,” Maile said, referring to the aftermath of the 2016 local government elections when the party lost Tshwane after the EFF struck a deal with the DA.
Maile said the ANC in Gauteng was not planning to lose in the May 8 poll.
“We can sound arrogant but we are not. We are working very hard, we are convinced that our people will renew our mandate.”
Maile said in the municipal elections unhappy ANC supporters did not vote for other parties but stayed at home.
“The only ward we lost was in Tembisa, we won all our wards in our strongholds,” he said.
He said the ANC wanted to increase its electoral support from the 53% it obtained in Gauteng in the 2014 general elections.
Maile, who was speaking at the launch of the ANC Pavilion at the Rand Show at the Nasrec Expo Centre, Johannesburg yesterday, said the party was on course to not only retain Gauteng but increase its majority too.
“We will win and win decisively,” he insisted.
According to Maile, the decline of the ANC’s support in Gauteng five years ago can be attributed to issues such as e-tolls, the controversy surrounding the R248 million security upgrades to former president Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla homestead, unemployment and housing.
Maile also weighed in on the #AlexShutdown protests and the Alexandra renewal project.
“If people are saying there has been corruption, people stole money, they must come with facts. You can apply, to the Zondo commission (of inquiry into state capture.”
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