Democratic Alliance (DA) federal council speaker Helen Zille said that although progress was being made in negotiations, the DA and the African National Congress (ANC) were yet to reach an agreement on forming the government in Gauteng.
The DA was briefing the media on its impasse with the ANC in Gauteng.
She says governance in Gauteng must be a power-sharing arrangement and therefore the ANC cannot dictate the terms of governance.
Zille says he is ready to join a Gauteng Government of Provincial Unity (GPU) on the basis of a power-sharing partnership that reflects the will of the people of the province.
Zille says that of Gauteng's 10 provincial cabinet posts, the ANC wants to give the DA three executive council posts and occupy seven. She says the ANC has agreed to keep six cabinet posts and the premier, giving one to the IFP or PA and three to the DA, which she says would breach the proportionality clause.
“We are not going to be taken in by the ANC solely on the ANC's terms. They are acting as if the ANC still has a majority in Gauteng, which it doesn't. We cannot agree to being held hostage to a provincial unity government where only one party will dictate the terms. As far as the parliamentary chairpersons are concerned, the proposal was for the DA to take six seats out of a total of 17 and we were prepared to accept this allocation despite being significantly short.”