Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen and the leaders of several other political parties will hold a National Convention in August. [Picture: @Our_DA/Twitter]
Seven opposition parties are preparing to unseat the ruling African National Congress (ANC). They hope to take advantage of the possibility that the ANC may not bag an outright victory next year.
In a joint statement on Monday, the Democratic Alliance (DA), Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), Action SA, United Independent Movement (UIM) and Spectrum National Party (SNP) announced their leaders would hold a “historic” National Convention on 16 and 17 August.
“Party leaders have agreed on an agenda that will guide negotiations at the Convention to ensure that we emerge with the strongest possible agreement. Important items on the agenda include the values and principles that will guide a Pact government, formulation of a joint minimum programme of action, rules of engagement during the upcoming election campaign, and a formula to form a Cabinet after the 2024 election,” it read.
This followed several “exploratory meetings” held between the parties over the past two months.
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Aims of the National Convention
While the parties made it clear that no outcome had been predetermined, they were eager to engage in robust engagements at the meeting next month. The idea was to emerge with an agreement as to how the parties could co-govern in the event of the ANC losing its majority next year.
“All these political parties are smelling blood. They have a sense that the ANC, which is the governing party, is likely not to garner the 50+1% electoral outcome that will enable it to govern alone,” said Professor Sam Khoma in an interview on Salaamedia.
He said an interesting development had occurred, with parties such as the DA, Action SA, IFP and Freedom Front Plus (FF+) on one hand and the ANC and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) on the other.
“These are parties that are championing common interests: issues around identity, language, culture and self determination. They are able to reach middle ground and to establish areas of policy convergence,” he said.
What a National Convention could achieve, he suggested, would be an agreement that would allow the parties to return to the negotiating table should the ANC not garner sufficient support at the polls.
“They are simply saying this is the structure and this is the programme that we want to enter into and focus on, in the event we have this electoral outcome that affords us an opportunity – for the first time – to govern the country.”
The parties will meet at Emperor’s Palace in Kempton Park, near Johannesburg, on 16 and 17 August. The venue was chosen on purpose, as it is where the historic CODESA negotiations took place some 30 years earlier, ushering in the democratic era.
