Cape Town In The Balance

Farrel — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 06:00:00 -0600

Despite Eskom’s best efforts I will not be denied internet access! Yeeaarrrgh!!! Sorry. Had a brief Howard Dean moment there… On to the elections in Cape Town.

According to the latest results, each party received the following percentage of the vote and the number of seats on the council out of 210.

Party	Percentage	Seats(210)
DA	41.85	90
ANC	37.91	81
ID	10.75	23
ACDP	3.22	7
AMP	1.33	3
Other	4.94	6

I don’t think the DA will be able to form a coalition with the minority parties , particularly as the ACDP and the AMP have ideologies that are waaaay on the other side of the spectrum than the DA. But… this is the same party that merged with the NNP at one time so who knows.

What is likely, at least what I hope is likely, is an ‘unoffical coalition’. The ID is adamant that there will be no coalition with the DA or the ANC and they want to get rid of the executive mayoral committee that the ANC introduced, which also happens to be what the DA wants as well. I think on most issues the DA and ID will probably be voting off the same ideological page.

Another interesting thing is that if the executive mayoral committee is scrapped the influence of the mayor will be greatly diminished. So it doesn’t seem too bad if Simon Grindrod is made mayor as long as all he does is smile and wave nicely during parades. Hopefully there will be some negotiation allowing Helen Zille to have some actual political clout in the council because she really is an effective and seasoned politician and it would be a terrible shame if she went to waste as nothing more than a councillor.

The parties have seven days to get a working council together.

Politics.za: Cape Town In The Balance

Cape Town In The Balance