Durban — As parties were locked in coalition discussions all day on Sunday, political analyst Professor Sipho Seepe has vouched for an IFP and uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) coalition in KwaZulu-Natal.
Speaking his mind on the best and worst-case scenarios in the provincial coalition horse trading, Seepe said when one looks at the commonalities between Zuma and the IFP and, on the other hand, the ANC and the IFP, the MKP and the IFP coalition would be an ideal one.
Seepe supported his views by saying Zuma’s strong Zuluness resonates with the IFP which was founded on strong traditional views by its late founder and leader inkosi Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
These two were both Africanists and had never seen their Africanness as a problem, he said. They did not move to white suburbs but continued to stay in the villages of birth.
Seepe said Zuma is a proud Zulu who has lived in his home village of Nkandla throughout his life despite being president of the country, and Buthelezi, despite being the longest-serving MP, lived and died in Mahlabathini in the north of the province.
“For me, an IFP and MKP coalition will work well in the province. The parties have many things in common.
“Second, they had a common goal of removing the ANC from power at all costs, so these commonalities meant their coalition would be stable.”
The MKP, which has only been around for five months, shocked many with its performance, garnering 45% of provincial votes, with the IFP and ANC getting 18% and 17%, respectively.
In the 80-seat legislature, the MKP’s 45% translated to 37 seats while the IFP went up from 13, which it received in 2019, to 15. The ANC’s 17% saw the party dipping from the 54% in 2019. With this drop, it only managed to get back 14 seats from the 44 it had held.
The DA retained its 11 seats, and the ACDP retained its seat as well as the NFP. The EFF was the biggest loser dropping from eight seats to only two. With the MKP’s 37 seats and the IFP’s 15 combined, the two parties would govern the province comfortably.
The IFP, if dumping the MKP, will need the ANC, DA, NFP and either the ACDP or the EFF to govern. If the MKP can convince the EFF, the NFP and the ACDP, it can govern without the IFP, DA and ANC.
Musa Mkhize, the elections co-ordinator for the MKP in KZN, said they were focused on challenging the results as the party had objected and was not entertaining issues of coalition.
“With regard to coalitions, we will wait for the president to give us direction. He is the one who leads coalitions nationally and provincially,” said Mkhize.
The ANC in the province said it would only work with parties that would bring stability. It won’t start coalition talks until they get a directive from the NEC on Tuesday.
The IFP leadership was locked in a meeting discussing a way forward. But a senior party member who spoke on condition of anonymity said the general feeling in the party was that it would be better to work with the “devil ANC that they know” than working with “the devil MKP they don’t know.” The MKP and other parties were said to be consulting their legal teams about what actions they would take as the IEC said it would go ahead with the release of results on Sunday evening.
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