So you want to vote DA?

[Gunservant]

Be careful. Snakes, turncoats and political opportunists. Will throw their electorate under the bus for a fat paycheck and a seat in the provincial legislature. So, when the enemy of my enemy becomes my enemy...is he still my friend then?

http://www.news24.com/Elections/News...tions-20140420

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More NewsDA chatting up EFF ahead of elections

Carien du Plessis, Sabelo Ndlangisa and Athandiwe Saba, City Press
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2014-04-20 17:35

(File, Sapa)



Johannesburg - The DA in Gauteng is flirting with the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) ahead of the elections, in what could end up as a coalition of strange bedfellows, the City Press reports.
DA Gauteng premier candidate Mmusi Maimane has admitted that the issue of a coalition government has come up in informal conversations between himself and leaders of the EFF and the ANC.
A coalition government in South Africa’s economic heartland will be necessary if the ANC garners less than 50% support in the 7 May elections.
“Dali [Mpofu, EFF premier candidate] and I go to enough events together, so it comes up in conversation,” Maimane said.
“There is a sense of collegiality about job creation and corruption. As opposition parties, we are against a government that is corrupt in the main.”
However, Maimane did say that this was a personal view. DA leader Helen Zille said the party would consider coalitions, but only under “very clear conditions”.
“If we cannot get the critical portfolios we need to do our work properly, we would rather stay in opposition.
“There is only one thing worse than losing an election and that’s an unstable, irreconcilable coalition torn apart by internal conflict and unable to govern.”
DA leaders in Gauteng told City Press the party was willing to enter into a coalition with the ANC, or even the EFF in the province, in exchange for “critical positions” in portfolios like education and health.
Internal and external polls in the past month show the ANC’s support in Gauteng fluctuating between 48% and 52%. The province has 6 million registered voters, making it a prime election prize.
There are serious divisions in the DA’s leadership over a suitable partner for the party if, for the first time in 20 years, the ANC does not win an absolute majority (51%) in Gauteng.
Young Turks in the DA’s federal council said they would “rather work with the EFF any day than with the ANC”.
But the more experienced council members believed a coalition with the EFF was “inconceivable” and would result in “absolute chaos”.
Positive talks with Mpofu
City Press sister publication Rapport understands from sources in the DA’s federal council, as well as national and parliamentary leadership, that:
Senior DA candidates in Gauteng have been in discussions with Mpofu regularly. The talks have apparently been “positive”.
The federal council has already appointed a “small group of people” to consider every possible coalition scenario and the party is in the process of putting together a negotiating team to handle the mediation with possible coalition partners.
According to a senior member of the federal council, any coalition agreement would be made under strict conditions and “in the best interests of DA voters in Gauteng”.
The DA apparently realises that a coalition with President Jacob Zuma’s ANC or Julius Malema’s EFF could severely antagonise, or even alienate its supporters.
Young members in the DA leadership feel that the EFF is harmless at provincial level since it would not be able to carry out its more radical policies, such as nationalisation and land expropriation, unless it was in national government.
Older members of the DA’s federal council believed there was a “slim chance” of a coalition with the ANC working, while a coalition with the EFF would be a big mistake.
Mpofu, who with Floyd Shivambu is a negotiator for the EFF, denied that any negotiations with the DA about possible coalitions were under way before the elections.
“If we have to adopt coalitions, then we’ll have to cross the bridge at that time. Whoever is in a coalition with us must accept our principles of land expropriation, nationalisation, free education, and so on,” he said.
Informal talks
However, an EFF national leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said whatever negotiations were under way at the moment were informal. He said the party would rather wait for the elections to know how it had performed before it entered into any pacts.
He also said the party envisaged a scenario where the opposition rallied behind it and ruled Gauteng together.
“But the DA’s bosses in Stellenbosch are likely to say the ANC is closer to them than the EFF,” he said. He said in that case, the ANC and the DA would govern together while the EFF built its support from the opposition benches.
Mpofu said he had not spoken to Maimane and would prefer talks only after the elections.
Gauteng DA leader John Moodey said Maimane was part of the talks with the EFF and other smaller parties to try to determine “where we are in agreement”.
“Our talks are to see if we can reach a point where we can agree,” he said. David Makhura, Gauteng ANC secretary and premier candidate, said a coalition government was not on the cards.
“We are not planning to get anything less than 60%. We are not planning a coalition. We have fundamental differences with all the other parties contesting the election,” he said.

[CorditeCrazy]

Hand in glove, they are all self serving. The only principal is to get in power and scoop the cream off the top as soon as as possible.

[Klasnikov]

All politicians are the same. The DA are only currently diffrent in not wanting to drive whites into the sea. How long before they also turn is only a matter of time. :(

[BigT]

So what alternative do you advise?

[Boomstomp]

Politics is strange in SA... the majority vote for what parties did/were like 25 years ago, and nobody seems to have any patience for the opposition. Its mostly a "for-us-or-completely-our-enemy" type of mindset.

If the DA does not win outright in GP, then a coalition might not be such a bad idea. It depends on what the terms of the coalition is, and where they compromise. For a compromise will be needed by all concerned.
After WW2 the German voting system was changed so that it is almost impossible for any party to win outright, forcing parties to always rule in coalitions. This forces them to take matters of minority parties into account, and does sometimes result in better policies/ruling. Dialogue between parties also seems to help them, as it keeps new ideas in circulation and the majority party on their toes.

If a compromise to rule as a coalition gets the DA a few key portfolios which they can then sort out, is that not better than refusing to negotiate anything and watch from the sidelines as maladministration continues? Ignoring anything else regarding the DA, at least they have a track record of solid governance. And have mostly been open to engagement before making sweeping changes.

I have not yet decided who gets my vote, but practical realities should be considered. Core policies will be important, but if a party chooses to ignore practical ways of moving SA forward then I have no time for them. Our country currently needs all the help it can get.

[Frizzle]

So what alternative do you advise?

Hopefully not the ANC. Definitely not EFF. Voting for small parties is probably better than not voting at all but then I'm still left with voting for a small party that makes zero difference at the end of the day.
Sure, all political parties have their resident assholes (pardon my language), who often make you question the party's intent or their benefit for us at the end of the day. But still, that leaves me with the question of who offers me the best benefit and the best compromise?

[Gunservant]

So what alternative do you advise?

Any of the ones that won't infringe upon my right to own property, among numerous other rights. I'm willing to look past a political party's many flaws, but at some point a rational person has to do some introspection and figure out for themselves where that line is.

I'm voting FF+.

There's a list of alternatives as long as my arm: ACDP, IFP, UDM...even Cope.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_A...election,_2014

[ravingDIODE]

Any of the ones that won'tinfringe upon my right to own property, among numerous other rights. I'm willing to look past a political party's many flaws, but at some point a rational person has to do some introspection and figure out for themselves where that line is.

I'm voting FF+.

There's a list of alternatives as long as my arm: ACDP, IFP, UDM...even Cope.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_A...election,_2014

+1

[Gunservant]

Hopefully not the ANC. Definitely not EFF. Voting for small parties is probably better than not voting at all but then I'm still left with voting for a small party that makes zero difference at the end of the day.
Sure, all political parties have their resident assholes (pardon my language), who often make you question the party's intent or their benefit for us at the end of the day. But still, that leaves me with the question of who offers me the best benefit and the best compromise?

If a party already has seats in parliament, it is not a small party.

Conversely, the DA has less than 18% of the seats, so can they even be called big? The whole thing is a scam. The "opposition" hasn't stopped a single bill that the ANC really wants from being passed. Not once.

[Sean Murphy]

The way I see it, no matter who wins, the tax paying middle class are going to be exploited so government can pander to the majority poor. No matter who runs the show, we should not expect that we will get to spend the majority of our earnings on improving our own lives and pursuing our own ambitions. The are too many empty hands that need filling and the only thing they will give in return is their vote. To who ever promisses to fill their hand. And none of those have a spine to share among them.

Sean.