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GOOD says no to coalitions, vows to act as 'constructive opposition'


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GOOD says no to coalitions, vows to act as 'constructive opposition'

GOOD party logo

8th November 2021

By: News24Wire

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The GOOD party has vowed that it will not enter into any coalitions and that it will serve as a "constructive opposition" party instead.

Secretary-general Brett Herron said the party contested 45 municipalities in five provinces, even though it was formed only three years ago.

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"We presented a comprehensive and realistic plan to fix our towns and cities, and the voters responded to that plan by electing 45 GOOD councillors in municipalities across four provinces. This includes 12 municipalities where no political party achieved an outright majority and where coalitions are needed in order to form a government," he said.

The municipalities include Witzenberg, Breede Valley, George, Beaufort West, Theewaterskloof and Langeberg in the Western Cape.

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GOOD also secured one seat in the hung Tshwane municipality in Gauteng, and a seat in Nelson Mandela Bay in the Eastern Cape.

"GOOD is showing consistent growth. Voters chose to support GOOD and our fight for social, spatial, economic and environmental justice over much older, but now clearly diminishing, parties. We had to assess how best we could serve our supporters and the residents in the towns and cities where we are elected. We concluded that the coalitions were not in the best interests of the causes we champion nor of our voters," Herron said.

The party's national management committee "considered several approaches to form coalitions with other political parties" but decided that it would rather act as a constructive opposition party "as the best way to serve our supporters", Herron added.

"GOOD is one of a handful of newer political parties, arrogantly dismissed by some as non-entities, which combined to give both the ANC and the DA bloody noses in the local government elections – including in the City of Cape Town where the DA majority was slashed by 8%," Herron added.

The party secured nine seats in the council in Cape Town, with 3.81% of the votes.

One of the reasons the party is turning down coalition offers is because they are not based on service delivery and reflect power grabs instead, Herron said.

He said,"Coalitions don't work when they are expedient and are formed only to keep a particular party out of government. Those that are a scramble for positions are also likely to be unstable and unsustainable."

"The DA and ANC are scrambling to form governments to retain power and keep the other parties out. We don't hear much about delivery agreements. This is a scramble for positions of power without reflecting on why they lost power in the first place."

Herron vowed that the party would work hard and constructively.

"We want to continue to grow and to continue to challenge the decaying old parties who have betrayed those they have been elected to serve," he said.

 

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