The coalition between the DA and the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) in Langeberg Local Municipality in the Western Cape has been dissolved, with the DA saying this was after it had lodged a dispute against the FF+ over its refusal to support the coalition’s budget in May.
On Wednesday, the DA’s Western Cape leader, Tertuis Simmers, said: “This constitutes a material breach of the coalition agreement and contributed significantly to the breakdown of trust between the parties.”
Simmers said the action was “all the more egregious given that all coalition partners had signalled support for the budget at a workshop held a week before the council meeting” on 30 May.
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“This issue was the final straw that broke the camel’s back in the deteriorating relationship between the DA and the Freedom Front Plus in Langeberg. When trust breaks down to that extent, it makes stable government impossible.”
The FF+ Western Cape leader Corné Mulder denied the DA’s claims and said the DA had “unilaterally” broken the agreement between the two parties.
“The FF+ did not break this coalition … There’s a clear strategy from the DA to force the FF+ out of all coalitions in the Western Cape,” Mulder told Daily Maverick.
The rupture in DA-FF+ relations in Langeberg comes less than a week after the DA and FF+ coalition agreement in Oudtshoorn Municipality splintered after the FF+ joined the ANC, Patriotic Alliance, Good party and Oudtshoorn Community Initiative in voting for a motion of no confidence against the DA mayor Chris Macpherson.
Macpherson’s ousting led to the collapse of the multiparty coalition agreement between the DA, FF+, the Independent Civic Organisation of South Africa and Suid-Kaap Saamstaan in Oudtshoorn, reported News24.
The DA and FF+ had formed a coalition government in the Langeberg Municipality after the 2021 local government elections.
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Mulder said Simmers’ claim that the FF+ had refused to support the coalition’s budget was “blatantly untrue and a lie”.
“There was no coalition budget — there was a DA budget,” he said.
Mulder said the FF+ had expressed unhappiness with the budget, but the DA had proceeded to — without the FF+’s support — take the budget to the council and approve it with the support of the ANC.
“As a matter of fact, we abstained because the DA was not prepared to deal with us and our concerns.”
Simmers said the FF+ was the only party which abstained from voting on the budget.
Talks with the ANC
He said the situation between the DA and FF+ was “aggravated” by the fact that the FF+ deputy mayor in Langeberg had been involved in discussions with the ANC behind the scenes.
“Information reached us that the Freedom Front Plus was planning to join forces with the ANC to pass a motion against the DA mayor in the same way they recently did in Oudtshoorn,” he said.
In response to questions from Daily Maverick, Mulder did not deny that the FF+ had been approached by the ANC “at some stage recently”. However, he said the FF+ had been transparent with the DA about the intention of the ANC.
“We played open cards with the DA — the deputy mayor from the FF+ went to the DA mayor with the information.”
Working together
Both Mulder and Simmers believed the rupture in DA-FF+ relations in Langeberg and Oudtshoorn would not affect the parties’ coalition agreements in other local municipalities.
“There are a few other municipalities in the Western Cape where, among others, the Freedom Front Plus does form part of a multiparty coalition government with the DA. Our coalition agreements are signed per municipality, with the understanding that the one does not impact the other one,” Simmers told Daily Maverick.
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He said that in municipalities where the FF+ and the DA were part of a multiparty coalition: “It’s all dependent on the interpersonal relationships between the councillors at a local level.”
Mulder said the FF+ remained committed to all the coalition agreements it had with the DA. “We are not walking away from any coalition agreement,” he said.
“We don’t intend to break any coalition agreement, but it’s quite clear that the DA thinks differently.” DM
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