Garden Route council coalitions in flux as politicians cast an eye to 2026

Recently, political power in Oudts­hoorn transferred from the Democratic Alliance (DA)  to a new coalition led by the African National Congress (ANC) and Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus). Now, municipalities such as Bitou and Knysna could change hands too. What exactly is happening here?

Much of the political governance changes in the region are related to the upcoming 2026 local government elections, according to elections analyst Wayne Sussman.

Over the past few weeks, several councils in the Garden Route have either changed hands or are in the process of changing hands. The municipalities of George, Knysna, Bitou, Oudts­hoorn and Kannaland have hung councils and require a coalition to govern.

The council change in Oudtshoorn sent ripples through the Garden Route as a new coalition featured an unlikely leading duo: the ANC and the FF Plus.

This new ANC-FF Plus coalition with smaller, regional-based parties in the council was dubbed a government of local unity.

Then it emerged this new duo would look at governance in other municipalities too, as Daily Maverick has reported.

Read more in Daily Maverick: ANC and FF+ join forces in new local governance model in WCape

At risk in this region are the George and Garden Route district municipalities, where the FF Plus and the DA work together. At the same time, the FF Plus has asked the DA to restore those coalitions for the sake of stability.

Shaky ground

The DA’s motion of no confidence against Claude Terblanche, the mayor of Bitou, has been postponed. (Photo: Suné Payne)

A motion of no confidence in Aubrey Tsengwa, the mayor of Knysna, has lapsed. (Photo: Edrea du Toit / Gallo Images)

Over the past three weeks, coalitions in the Bitou and Knysna municipalities have be­­come unstable.

In Bitou, which comprises Plettenberg Bay and surrounds, a local party, the Ikhwezi Political Movement, broke its governing coalition with the ANC and another local party, the Plett Democratic Congress, to join a coalition with the DA. After the 2021 local elections, Bitou was run by a DA-led coalition, which featured the Plett Democratic Congress and local party, the Active United Front.

This week, Daily Maverick reported that the DA’s motion of no confidence in Plett Democratic Congress mayor Claude Terblanche and ANC speaker Sandiso Gcabayi was postponed after Gcabayi revealed in council that he needed a legal opinion because two motions of no confidence were tabled. He needed to know which one was to be used. The meeting was postponed for seven days.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Council fracas in Bitou as governing ANC-led coalition collapses 

In Knysna, a motion of no confidence in ANC mayor Aubrey Tsengwa lapsed because the councillor who put forward the motion was absent when it was heard.

The coalition in Kannaland Municipality, which comprises Ladismith, Zoar and Calitzdorp, excludes both the DA and the ANC. Two regional parties run it – the Independent Civic Organisation of South Africa and its offshoot party, the Karoo Independent Party.

“I think we could see more changes in the coming months. There’s a lot of instability,” Sussman. said

He told Daily Maverick that in this post-election period, parties are taking stock of what happened during the national election. According to Sussman, parties are considering what will be best for them now and for the local government elections in 2026. For example, he said, the DA and FF Plus in the Western Cape were once perceived as being “hand in glove”, but “that does not seem to be the case any more”.

The DA-FF Plus relationship

After weeks of back and forth about issues in Western Cape municipalities, DA party leader John Steenhuisen and FF Plus leader Pieter Groenewald said on Wednesday that both parties agreed “that unstable local ANC coalition relationships are detrimental to the affected communities” and that the coalitions the parties are part of should be stabilised.

“This agreement also entails, among other things, that the FF Plus national party leader, Dr Groenewald, will meet with the federal and provincial leadership of the DA. Inputs from local leadership of affected municipalities will be collected in order to identify the origin of problems and to find amicable solutions,” reads a statement issued by both parties.

“The parties are committed to ensuring that coalitions stabilise in the Western Cape and other provinces to serve communities and ensure service delivery and good municipal governance.”

They have worked with the FF Plus previously, but the coalition was broken and FF Plus councillors were removed from their position. At a district level, the DA now works with Icosa.

Service delivery challenges

Coalition agreements often break down because of service delivery complaints. These include in Bitou, where issues were raised about the municipality’s liquidity and water supply problems. In Knysna, there are problems with water security and infrastructure services.

When Daily Maverick asked Anton Bredell, the Western Cape member of the executive council for local government, about political changes in municipalities and its impacts on residents, his spokesperson, Wouter Kriel, said Bredell “prefers to direct the political questions to the relevant ­parties themselves. From a local government perspective, frequent political leadership changes in councils cause instability, which ultimately leads to service delivery challenges.” DM

A number of edits were made to this article for accuracy, following initial publication. 

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

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