FF Plus rules out coalitions with EFF, MK Party and PAC after local elections

Freedom Front Plus leader Dr Corné Mulder has ruled out coalition partnerships with the EFF, MK Party and PAC after the November 4 local government elections, saying those parties do not share his party’s values and principles. He made the comments in Pretoria after the party launched its 2026 local government election manifesto.

Only parties with aligned values will be considered

Mulder told the SABC that while coalition governments could become common in municipalities after the elections, the Freedom Front Plus would only work with parties it could associate with and that would act in the interests of communities. The manifesto the party launched sets out a 10-point plan focused on service delivery, accountability and tackling failing municipal administration.

Parties explicitly excluded

Mulder specifically named three parties the Freedom Front Plus would not partner with: the EFF, the MK Party and the PAC. He said:

“The reality is that, specifically those parties that I’ve mentioned, and there may be others, we do not share the same value system, we do not share the same ideals and principles necessarily.”

He added that parties could agree on practical issues such as service delivery while still holding fundamentally different political positions. Mulder said:

“We may all agree on no bottles, we may all agree on fixing the grid, or having electricity or the water system.”

Growth and geographic reach

Mulder said the Freedom Front Plus was expanding beyond its traditional support base and contesting more wards and councils. He said:

“At the moment in five of the nine provinces in South Africa, we are participating in each and every council. We are participating in each and every ward.”

He identified the Western Cape, Northern Cape, Free State, Gauteng and Mpumalanga as the provinces where the party was contesting every council and ward. In the remaining provinces, he said the party was contesting between 75% and 80% of municipalities.

Service delivery and municipal priorities

The party’s manifesto places municipal service delivery at the centre of its campaign. Mulder criticised municipalities that spend large portions of their budgets on salaries instead of services and infrastructure, saying:

“In some municipalities, you’ll find that 80% of the budget is being spent on salaries and not on services or infrastructure.”

He called for fewer managers and more employees with practical skills, saying:

“We need more people on another level. We need artisans, we need people that can fix the pipes in the water, electricity, etc.”

Economic concerns and migration

Mulder linked weak economic growth and high unemployment to voter frustration over jobs and undocumented migration. He said:

“The biggest problem in South Africa currently is the fact that our economy is not growing, that we have a huge unemployment rate, and it’s getting worse all the time.”

He said the Freedom Front Plus believed South Africans should be prioritised for employment while stressing the party did not support vigilante action against undocumented people:

“We cannot condemn any vigilante kind of actions against other people, we have to respect other people as well.”

The party’s approach, Mulder said, is to put communities first and ensure residents receive value for the taxes they pay.