ATM trails SACP at home, but won't sign any coalition on a handshake

As hung councils pile up across the country, ATM parliamentary leader Vuyo Zungula has staked out a firm position: the party will not enter any coalition on a handshake — even as it trails the SACP in its own Eastern Cape heartland.

"Coalitions must be built around programmes, not positions. Johannesburg has experienced the consequences of political arrangements in which disagreements over leadership and appointments overshadow the responsibility to govern," Zungula said.

"Johannesburg cannot continue to function as a political bargaining platform at the expense of its residents. The constant changes in political leadership have undermined policy continuity, weakened accountability and created uncertainty within the administration."

Zungula said the ATM would not commit to supporting a coalition — whether ANC-led or DA-led — without a written agreement setting out how the municipality will be governed.

"The emphasis has always been there must be a coalition arrangement, an agreement, a coalition agreement, which then informs how we work," he said.

"But in the absence of a written agreement or a written programme which we could use to hold them accountable, it would be stupid for us to actually take the word of a politician."

He wants any deal to contain clearly defined service delivery priorities, shared performance targets, a five-year programme of action, dispute-resolution mechanisms and consequences for parties that fail to honour their commitments.

"As the ATM, we are prepared to work with political parties that share our commitment to clean governance, institutional stability and reliable services. However, political cooperation must never become an excuse for compromising accountability or protecting underperforming officials," Zungula said.

"The interests of Johannesburg residents must take precedence over the interests of coalition partners."

That hard line comes from experience. The ATM previously served in Johannesburg's coalition administration, with a representative on the mayoral committee for about 16 months before being recalled for what Zungula described as political reasons. He said the absence of enforceable agreements made accountability impossible.

It is also the lens through which the ATM's Eastern Cape showing must be read. The party may be smaller, but it now wants to be a disciplined coalition partner, not a number to make up a majority.

In the province, the ATM has been pushed into sixth place.

With about 77% of voting districts counted in the Eastern Cape, the ATM had 3.6% of the PR vote. The ANC led on 46.6%, followed by the DA on 19.4%, the SACP and EFF on 5.9% each, and the UDM on 5.7%.

It sits behind the SACP, which is contesting elections on its own for the first time.

Zungula said that the party was growing, and credited its refusal to take large donations.

"We remain true to our principles. Number one, not wanting to receive big money. That helps a lot when it comes to campaigning, but it compromises you, in the sense that you end up not being the voice of the people. Rather, you become the voice of whoever gives you the money. Secondly, there's this political populism that people engage in simply because they want votes, they want to trend, and they want to quickly rile up people's emotions for trending.

"We've remained principled. From 2019 up until 2024, we've always been hovering around 0.4 or 0.45%, but now we are on 1%, and it's because of the voters and supporters of the party," Zungula said.

Asked whether the ATM should have done better in the Eastern Cape, Zungula pointed to its council seats.

"We currently have about 29 PR councillors, and the majority of them are coming from the Eastern Cape. So there's growth, and in some instances we've even doubled. For example, in Buffalo City, we've doubled our growth. Ours is to focus on consolidating what we have while we wait for the final results. As things stand, it is looking positive for the ATM, and it is a nice build-up for 2029, because the appetite is very clear. People have been yearning for consistent, principled messaging," he said.

He said the party had won its first seats outside the Eastern Cape.

"We already have seats in Limpopo, the Free State, here in Gauteng, and even in the City of Cape Town. A large base of our supporters is in the Eastern Cape, or comes from the Eastern Cape, but the work of the party is national. What we are doing now is building on the ground we have broken in the Free State, Limpopo and other places, where by 2021 we never had a single representative, but now we have," Zungula said.

He said voters had needed time to trust the party.

"I remember 2019, our first showing. People said, you are showing potential, but who are you? You've never been tested. It took a couple of years for us to be tested in Parliament. From the time the ATM got into the picture, it has shown growth, unlike parties that grow the first time, dip, and then find it difficult to grow again. For us, it has always been growth, because of our consistency. There is nothing we said in 2019 that we have changed over the years."

Nationally, the ATM was on about 0.9% of the ward vote on Friday afternoon.

In the Eastern Cape, it was ahead in six wards in early counts, which would be its first ward wins.