In April, the Democratic Alliance (DA) tabled an interesting proposed amendment for delegates at its 2026 Federal Congress to consider. It was proposed that all coalition agreements “must be made public and be based on a signed, written document that explicitly outlines the principles of the agreement, key policy priorities, and governance protocols.”
I am informed that the Congress did not adopt this proposal. However, I believe that if effectively applied by all political parties in South Africa during coalition formation, it may contribute to coalition transparency, stability, and shared principles. In turn, this is likely to strengthen governance processes, including a greater focus on policy implementation.
The Government of National Unity’s (GNU) Statement of Intent, which underpins South Africa’s broad coalition at the national level, contains some foundational principles that all the GNU parties agreed to. It also has a basic minimum programme of priorities, including an agreement that GNU parties would hold a Lekgotla to develop an agreed policy agenda. This led to the adoption of the 2024-2029 Medium Term Development Plan by the Cabinet.
Although commendable, the Statement of Intent may be insufficient compared to other jurisdictions. In 2019 and 2023, a delegation from different political parties visited Germany to study how coalitions are established and work. There, coalition formation is an arduous and often lengthy process that includes detailed agreements, which focus principally on government policies rather than government positions.
In Germany, the coalition agreement is often more than 100 pages long, as it is very detailed compared to those in South Africa which are often not clear. There is clear policy alignment before the government is formed in Germany while in South Africa, a new coalition is sometimes formed just to remove another political party from government. In Germany, most of the time the coalitions last full terms and on our side, when you look at local government, there is always a collapse through never-ending motions of no confidence. Some parties act as kingmakers in South Africa and in Germany, they accept they can’t get everything.
For instance, the current coalition agreement between the Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) contains specific policy agreements across several areas such as trade, energy and climate, borrowing and taxation, labour, defence, and migration. This enhances certainty and minimises grounds for potential conflicts in the coalition. While the coalition has experienced some tensions between the coalition partners and within the respective political parties, its blueprint has held it together so far despite its slim parliamentary majority.
In contrast, the Statement of Intent contains broad agreements that don’t go much into specifics. Consequently, the ANC and the DA, for example, have clashed repeatedly over transformation policies such as the Expropriation Act, BELA Act, and B-BBEE. The GNU nearly failed to pass its inaugural budget following disagreements on a proposed VAT increase because of internal disagreements, despite its large parliamentary majority.
The situation appears to be worse at the provincial and local government levels. In Gauteng, the ANC recently reached a deal with the EFF that saw the appointment of the EFF’s Nkululeko Dunga as the province’s Finance MEC. This agreement appears to have been triggered more by the hitherto minority government’s failure to pass an adjustment budget in the provincial legislature than a shared policy framework or principles.
As the local government elections draw near, the need for more structured coalition agreements becomes even more pronounced. South Africans deserve municipal governments that put their interests first ahead of those of political parties. It can’t just be a game of numbers instead of being guided by key priorities of government. How do we measure them as the nation is we don’t know.
Political parties need to note that coalitions are here to stay and how they negotiate it needs to be a transparent process as we see it happening in Germany. There is a need for political will across all parties that go into these negotiations. South Africa had a Government of National Unity in 1994 and in 2016 we saw the onset of coalitions in several metropolitan municipalities. Key political actors need to use this experience to strengthen coalition stability and ultimately governance.
Rebone Tau
Political Commentator
