By Naadiya Adams

As expected the newly minted coalition governments in several municipalities may already be in trouble. The latest reports indicate that the first results show how difficult this year will be for the different coalition governments.

The Democratic Alliance is sitting short of three votes in the Johannesburg hung metro as it claims the Al Jama-ah Party reneged on its commitment to form a coalition with them.

Al Jama-ah refused a coalition with the DA due to the party’s support for Israel.

In an interview with Radio Islam, Al Jama- ah’s Ganief Hendricks says there was never an agreement in place to enter into a coalition with the DA.

“We’ve never been part of a DA coalition, and they claim in the media and push the agenda that we’re part of a coalition agreement with the DA in 22 municipalities including the City of Johannesburg, that is a lie!” says Hendricks.

According to Hendricks the party will never enter into an agreement with the likes of the DA or the ACDP who are in full support of Israel which is viewed as an apartheid state.

Hendricks says their party is willing to take up counsellor positions to oversee municipalities irrespective of the ruling party in the ward. He says they are in talks with the Economic Freedom Fighters.

“We are busy with the EFF, we had a meeting with the other nine political parties that have been governing the City of Johannesburg and we’re telling the EFF to assist, not to collapse the city of Johannesburg because that’s what the ANC wants to do,” explained Hendricks.

Hendricks says his party has laid a formal complaint against the regional leadership of the ANC as they attempt to collapse Joburg, he says the national leadership of the ANC is not in favour of collapsing the city of Joburg.

Al Jama-ah is growing and the party’s votes increased from 3 000 to a staggering 28 000.

“We are focused on service delivery that’s why our support has increased tenfold. Communities are impressed by the passion of our counsellors and we have 12 now,” says Hendriks.

Al Jama-ah met with the ANC leadership earlier this month, and the two parties are set to work hand in hand. Hendriks says the ANC has praised the party for the work they have done.

“Going forward we do have an offer from the ANC that we should get involved in the programmes of the 40 government departments and our constituency should benefit from these programmes, they are obviously referring to the Muslim community and we a muslim political party but we are a platform for many other communities,” said Hendricks.

Hendricks says while he agrees with the public sentiment that parties should not enter into coalitions with the ANC, it is possible for parties to work together as they share similar values and Hendriks believes that a liberation movement needs to be led by an organization like the ANC for it to be effective.