Gayton McKenzie Surprises Karoo Residents After Forming First Coalition Deal With ActionSA

Gayton McKenzie has announced the Patriotic Alliance’s first coalition agreement following South Africa’s local government elections, with the party agreeing to support an ActionSA candidate for mayor in Laingsburg.

The agreement comes after ActionSA emerged as the leading party in the Western Cape municipality in the 4 November vote but did not secure a clear majority. The party won three council seats, matching the Democratic Alliance’s total. ActionSA led the DA by less than one percentage point, leaving it needing support from another party to govern.

McKenzie, the PA leader and Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, said the arrangement would support an ActionSA mayoral candidate. The parties have presented the deal as a commitment to work together on local priorities, rather than as a broad national partnership.

Their stated priorities include improving the reliability of water and electricity, making streets safer, creating local employment opportunities and addressing what they describe as long-standing neglect in rural Karoo communities.

Laingsburg is a small Central Karoo municipality, and its election result has made coalition negotiations central to determining how the council will be run. ActionSA’s showing marked the party’s first municipal council seats in the Western Cape, while the DA also secured three seats.

The PA’s support gives the ActionSA candidate backing in the mayoral contest, although the details of how the coalition will operate and how responsibilities will be shared have not been set out in the information released. Neither party has provided a timetable for implementing the service priorities or described how progress will be measured.

The announcement follows McKenzie’s earlier statement that the PA would not rush into coalition agreements after the election. At that point, he said the party had not negotiated with other political formations and planned to appoint a team to lead discussions. The Laingsburg arrangement represents a subsequent development in those talks.

The election produced a close contest in Laingsburg. ActionSA candidate Beverley Vorster received 1,776 votes, or 26.59%, while the DA received 1,693 votes, or 25.35%. The ANC received 1,636 votes, or 24.9%, according to published results.

The agreement’s practical effect will depend on the council’s formal processes and whether the parties can sustain cooperation beyond the mayoral vote. Residents will be watching whether the promised focus on basic services and local employment translates into concrete decisions and improvements.

The PA and ActionSA have described the deal as a local response to the election outcome. It does not, by itself, establish a wider coalition between the parties in other municipalities.

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