Zille hits back at Malema

DA FEDERAL council chairperson Helen Zille has dismissed claims by EFF leader Julius Malema that she had struck a deal with President Cyril Ramaphosa to hand over hung municipalities to the ANC.

But the ANC has been left bruised after the EFF had backed the DA in the Gauteng metros and other municipalities, allowing the DA to sweep into power in Joburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni.

The ANC scraped in in eThekwini after they managed to get Abantu Batho Congress leader Philani Mavundla and other small parties on their side.

Mavundla was rewarded with the position of deputy mayor by switching sides at the last minute. The DA lost Nelson Mandela Bay by one vote after the ANC got smaller parties at the eleventh hour.

Zille denied that there was any deal between her and Ramaphosa to hand over the hung municipalities to the governing party.

Malema had claimed this week that by backing the DA, the EFF had disrupted that plan.

“There was no agreement at all with Ramaphosa,” Zille said. “The only agreement that I knew of that was being negotiated was the attempt facilitated by Malema that he should be given the City of Tshwane to govern, Herman Mashaba and ActionSA be given the City of Joburg and the ANC be given the City of Ekurhuleni.

“The idea was that they were going to take over those governments completely, the other parties would go into opposition and it would be like handing out sweets at a children's birthday party.”

Zille added the DA had been working on a plan to push the ANC below 50%.

“When I listened to Malema’s words, I thought to myself: ‘He is acting like a jilted lover.’ Remember, in 2016 we had a relationship with Malema; that was the biggest mistake the DA has ever made and I conceded that. But we went to some kind of engagement, I suppose a long-term on-off dating relationship, in which they gave us minority governance but expected us to be true to them and not date anyone else, and we saw that ended up in a full-blown relationship between one of our mayors, which exists till today, although he is in another party,” Zille said.

“This time around, we said absolutely no way we are going into any arrangements whatsoever with EFF. We were approached to please support the EFF mayor in Rustenburg and we said no. I had no idea that Malema was going to support us anywhere in the country, because we broke it off”.

Zille said Malema wanted DA to depend on them, hence he voted for them, which she said was a surprise.

“I have news for Malema: we are not going to be dependent on him, we are not going to be bought, captured and controlled by the EFF.

“We will stand by our principles, we won’t pay heed to what he says on the rumourmonger (vine). We will continue to build a country that Africa can be proud of, that will beat poverty through the only mechanism that has ever worked in a democracy, which is to have policies that grow the economy and create jobs,” Zille said.