Holomisa on coalitions: 'If the ANC could work with the National Party, what stops them working with DA'

UDM leader Bantu Holomisa says ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa should give DA federal chair Helen Zille “a call and meet up for coffee” to discuss a possible coalition between the parties. 

Holomisa, who was speaking at the Electoral Commission’s (IEC’s) national results centre in Tshwane on Thursday, said the ANC and DA should stop politicising local governance and agree on coalitions.

According to Holomisa, a non-partisan approach was needed for the benefit of service delivery.

“The DA and ANC must go and sit down... let President Ramaphosa call Zille and say 'Hi, Mama. Hoe gaan dit? (how are you doing?) ... there are problems, come nearer and let's have coffee,'” said Holomisa. 

“I mean, if the ANC could work with the National Party, which killed a lot of people in this country and today you have members of the National Party in the ranks of the ANC, [then] what stops them from working with the DA.”

Holomisa also told Jacaranda FM that if the ANC and DA go into a coalition, race relations in SA would improve. 

“DA and ANC should work together and form a government in those areas and they will benefit because one, race relations will improve in this country. Number two is that they are not obsessed with ideological differences, after all, there is no difference in ideology in all of these political parties,” he said. 

The idea of the ruling party teaming up with the main opposition resurfaced recently when a leaked audio of Zille speaking about the idea was circulated on social media. 

In the clip, which she said was recorded during a casual conversation in 2019, Zille can be heard saying: “I’d rather make tough demands on Cyril Ramaphosa’s ANC and force to unite under them, and go into coalition with them and make strict conditions for them, than go into coalition with anyone else. That I think should be our aim in the next election.”

Zille later claimed the audio was edited and taken out of context and that the DA was not planning on going into a coalition.

“People hate coalitions. They’ve seen what coalitions have done with their complete instability and the jumping of smaller parties from one side to the other,” she told CapeTalk.