McKenzie backs Kunene for Joburg mayor and rules out a 10-party coalition

Patriotic Alliance leader Gayton McKenzie has named Kenny Kunene as his choice for Johannesburg mayor and said he expects the city to be run by a coalition of the ANC, EFF, IFP, PA and MK Party after the municipal elections.

As IOL reported on 21 September, McKenzie made the remarks while campaigning in Johannesburg. He said the city needed someone willing to confront criminals rather than hold back, and described Kunene as the right person for that job.

Kunene is a familiar figure in Johannesburg politics and a senior figure in the PA. The party has been building its profile in the city, where it has drawn support around housing, policing and immigration.

McKenzie also turned on the DA’s federal chair, Helen Zille, questioning what she could offer Johannesburg. He asked why promises he said she was making to Soweto had not been delivered in Western Cape communities such as Langa, Gugulethu and Khayelitsha, and why issues raised in Eldorado Park had not been addressed in Mitchells Plain, Bellville, Valhalla Park and Kraaifontein.

The coalition arithmetic

McKenzie said the PA would work with any party that gave it the power to implement its priorities, listing jobs, clean water and improved living conditions. He said the party was already working with the Freedom Front Plus.

He does not expect the PA to win Johannesburg outright. He said he wanted enough support to avoid a coalition involving 10 parties, and put his preferred number at three. He said he expected a city government made up of the ANC, EFF, IFP, PA and MK Party.

That expectation sits awkwardly with the position of the DA and Freedom Front Plus, which have ruled out working with MK. McKenzie criticised that stance directly.

He also dismissed the influence of opinion polls, saying they had underestimated the PA before, and acknowledged that the ANC continues to win by-elections and retains support.

The immigration argument

McKenzie repeated his call for undocumented migrants to leave South Africa, saying people who want them to stay do not face the same pressure over housing and school places. He said some business leaders wanted to keep access to cheap labour.

He said the PA’s presence in national government had shifted the debate, and that under Kunene’s leadership in Johannesburg, undocumented migrants would be made to leave.

Johannesburg’s housing and schooling pressures are real and well documented, and the city is South Africa’s largest labour market. Immigration enforcement is a national function carried out by the Department of Home Affairs and the South African Police Service, not by a municipality or a political party.

McKenzie’s remarks are a statement of political intent. They are not a policy that a city government can implement on its own, and no deadline or mechanism has been set out.

The municipal elections will decide the shape of the next Johannesburg council. Until then, the PA’s candidate, its preferred partners and its position on immigration are campaign arguments rather than decisions.

Source: IOL, McKenzie backs Kunene for Joburg, questions what Zille can offer.