Going Down Swinging

Farrel — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 05:47:00 -0600

The ID have rejected the DA’s offer of seats on the executive mayoral committee although Mayor Zille is still keeping a seat vacant for them in the hope they have a change of heart.

Someamongus believes that this is due to De Lille’s ego although her own justification that the ID has nothing in common with most of the coalition is valid. Frankly I didn’t expect the parties in the coalition to last a week. It should be noted that the ID will not support the ANC led ‘no confidence’ vote but it is trying to have the executive mayoral committe disbanded in favour of an executive committee representing all parites in council.

I’m not sure if this will work. Firstly with the ID not joining the coalition the power of the smaller parties (ACDP/FF+/AMP) in the commission remains the same. Had the ID joined their power would have been diluted and in an executive committee system their political power would be minimal. I do not see them giving up what power they have.

Secondly the ID might not have all of it’s councillor’s supporting the move. We know that during the mayoral election there was a single vote from the ANC or most probably ID that broke ranks. We also know that prior to the mayoral election four members of the ID (most probably their ward councillors) were willing to vote for Zille had the AMP voted for the ANC mayoral candidate.

So either De Lille is going to shoot herself in the foot (again!) or manage to attain some power in the Cape. Personally I’m betting on the former but then again I thought the DA coalition would be impossible to pull off.

Politics.za: Going Down Swinging

Going Down Swinging