DA courts Vavi Jan-Jan Joubert and Thanduxolo Jika, Sunday Times, Johannesburg, 24 April 2016 DA leader Mmusi Maimane is courting former Cosatu boss Zwelinzima Vavi as the official opposition party intensifies its bid to wrest Nelson Mandela Bay metro from the ANC in the elections. The Sunday Times can reveal that Maimane and Vavi met at a Johannesburg hotel on February 1 to discuss forming a coalition government in the highly contested Eastern Cape municipality should the ANC fail to win an outright majority there. At the meeting were Maimane, Vavi and a former ANC mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay, Zanoxolo Wyile. National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa general secretary Irvin Jim was invited but did not pitch. Approached for comment yesterday, Jim said he had no knowledge of the meeting and referred the Sunday Times to Vavi. According to some insiders, the DA is prepared to offer Vavi the post of deputy mayor if his newly formed United Front wins a sizable number of wards and helps to reduce the ANC's majority to under 50% on August 3. The DA yesterday denied that the talks had reached the stage where the two parties were discussing future positions. Vavi confirmed that he was approached by the opposition leader about a possible coalition between the DA and the United Front. "I confirm that Maimane approached me about the possibility of a coalition in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro. This was after an Ipsos survey indicated that no party will win the metro and form a government on its own," said Vavi. "According to this survey the ANC will receive 43%, the DA 37% and, if the United Front fields credible candidates, it will receive up to 34%. I have referred Maimane to speak to the United Front leadership in Nelson Mandela Bay," he said. He said the meeting did not go into details of how the coalition would work. "I don't want to comment any further. The comrades must engage and have discussions," he said. Transcribed by hand from the hard copy -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
