by Joel Bregman
Tomorrow, the National Assembly will convene its first sitting. While parties have intensified their negotiations after the election results were announced when it became clear exactly where the chips had fallen, prior to 29 May, talks had already been underway. So, while our headlines are now dominated by the Government of National Unity (GNU), supply and confidence, and coalition formation, political parties have been considering these matters well before we cast our votes.
When parties need to form a coalition, compromises need to be made. Even if parties share similar ideologies, there will always be a need to make concessions. When parties are at opposite ends of the spectrum on key issues, which is the case for the ANC and the DA, it creates additional hurdles. If a single party governs, it controls key positions, in the Cabinet, on Committees, and more generally within government. But when parties are forced to share control, they must negotiate and share this same amount of power.
For example, the EFF has stated that it would form a coalition with the ANC if it were given the position of Minister of Finance and the Speaker of the National Assembly. The Patriotic Alliance has indicated it wants to head up Home Affairs or Police, for its participation in a GNU. Reports a few days ago, indicated that in the proposed GNU, the ANC would control the Executive, while the DA would be given control of the Legislature.
Regardless of the final arrangements that are made, what is crucial is that the public is aware of the deals made between political parties. This is a vital tool to hold political parties in coalitions to account and empowers the electorate to better reward or sanction coalitions, and the parties in them.
What is a coalition agreement and what should it contain?
Once parties have negotiated and agreed how they will work together, share power, and make compromises, a political contract should be written down. While not legally enforceable, these agreements are meant to provide a clear structure and framework to ensure that the coalition can function and be sustainable. Agreements are meant to lay down the rules that coalition partners abide by and to define coalition behaviour.
Perhaps most important for the public is a clear indication of how issues of policy will be approached and who is responsible for what in the coalition. Dr Beukes of the Dullah Omar Institute stresses, while some elements that may be of a sensitive and personal nature do not need to be made public, ‘those parts outlined in the coalition agreement that deal with the functions of the legislative and executive authorities, policy priorities of the government and the structure of the coalition ought to be published’.
They should also include mechanisms for dispute resolution, which are inevitable. It is impossible to conceive of every eventuality that will arise, and when there are disagreements, the agreement should guide how these will be resolved. It is important to note that there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to coalition agreements.
What additional concerns should we have about a national coalition or GNU?
With a few short exceptions, South Africa’s coalition experience has been at the local level. While there are overlapping competencies across all three levels of government, there are also marked differences and this needs to be considered in the coalition discussion.
National government is responsible for developing legislation and policy that impacts the entire country. It is logical that when parties in a coalition need to decide on these issues, especially complex and divisive ones, such as land redistribution, or the recently ratified National Health Insurance Bill, it will be more complicated. This just underscores the need for parties to negotiate and reach agreements that are clear and a shift to some transparency in coalition agreements.
Historically, coalition agreements in South Africa have not been made public and deals have been cut behind closed doors. The public has been excluded from knowing what parties have agreed to, what compromises they have made. But this seems to be changing, and we are entering a new era of coalition politics where some parties recognise the importance of agreements being made public.
President Ramaphosa recently noted that parties forming the GNU would need to commit to an agreement that is made public. And before the election, the Multi-Party Charter (MPC) developed and released a document outlining how its 11 political parties intended to work together. This pre-election agreement is the first of its kind in South Africa and is something that we must build on.
While the MPC must be commended for releasing its Charter, it did not contain the level of detail that will be required for strong, resilient coalitions. While the parties agreed on many principles, most of these are not contentious – such as the need to grow the economy, end loadshedding, and deliver quality services for all. It did not venture into the difficult terrain of policy and ideology. Not once is the issue of land or redistribution brought up. And it is these types of issues that require deep thinking and compromise. All parties will appear in unison on the obvious issues – constitutionalism, the rule of law, the need to strengthen the economy etc., but the real test will be how they compromise on areas of divergence, not of commonality.
Why is it important for coalition agreements to be public?
Political accountability with a single party in charge is difficult enough, but when two or more parties are sharing power, this is exacerbated. In coalitions, it can be difficult for the public and other parties to judge performance and hold parties accountable when it is unclear who is responsible for what. When there is transparency and we are aware of the arrangements that parties in a coalition have made, it facilitates a degree of accountability. The public and other parties can access crucial information that allows them to reward, to sanction, to critique.
As Dr Beukes also points out, ‘if coalition agreements are not disclosed there is no way to know whether the agreement respects public law norms (norms of accountability, due process, rationality and the rule of law) and the public cannot judge properly what is concealed.’ But, when they are public, it can encourage and develop a culture of coalition politics that deepens democracy, public confidence and trust.
Conclusion
By the end of this week, we will know the composition of the provincial coalitions and the GNU and so the respective agreements should be released to the public immediately. There is no good reason for this not to happen, as negotiations and agreements would have been concluded at this stage. Publicly releasing the agreements will help to build trust as we enter a new era of politics. But it is not only a matter of releasing the agreements. They must have a sufficient level of detail.
If agreements are not released expeditiously, My Vote Counts will be writing to the respective coalitions to demand they are made public. We will also be analysing the contents of each agreement to assess if they contain enough detail to understand how parties intend to work together and how they will compromise on policies, for the public to be able to hold them accountable.
