Zille and Lesufi’s power struggle threatens to derail GNU

The ANC in Gauteng got its worst election result yet in the May election and this is the province that wants to determine the political direction of national ANC structures.

It is as though the provincial leaders of the ANC believe they have a hidden card that the rest of the country doesn’t know about and when the chips are down, they’ll play this card and everyone will stand in awe of their intelligence and applaud turning a 34% performance in the election into a dominant position.

When the government of national unity (GNU) reached its 100-day in office milestone this weekend, it was against the backdrop of DA Federal Council chair Helen Zille issuing its partners in the GNU with an ultimatum.

This was that if the ousting of the mayor of the Tshwane metropolitan municipality Cilliers Brink is not reversed, the DA will pull out of talks involving three other metros that would have achieved stability because it would have partnered with the ANC.

This would mean that unstable arrangements will continue in the Ekurhuleni metro, eThekwini metro and Nelson Mandela Bay.

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In the letter Zille has written to the national leadership of the ANC, she said the DA is aware of the national leadership’s effort to have the GNU agreement filter down to provincial and municipality level, but is aware of the Gauteng ANC’s intransigence when it comes to working with the DA.

Someone should have whispered into Zille’s ear by now that writing public letters to resolve what those involved in the GNU should be hashing out behind closed doors actually creates more problems than it solves.

The Gauteng ANC is on a mission to show that it cannot be dictated to by Zille, or even its own president, Cyril Ramaphosa, for that matter.

What Zille in effect does when she writes to Ramaphosa is drive a bigger wedge between him and the leaders of the Gauteng ANC because it now has to demonstrate publicly that it does not dance to her tune.

And that comes in the form of actions like ousting people like Brink in Tshwane.

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What would be tragic was if Zille herself was aware of the effect of her letters and went ahead anyway.

A deeply divided ANC going into the 2026 local government elections would benefit the DA.

There is no way the DA is going to fold its arms and watch the 34% Gauteng ANC dictate terms.

That’s its right.

What it should be doing, though, is interrogating why Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi and his comrades are behaving the way they are.

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Is the Gauteng ANC so anti-GNU that it would do anything to ensure that it unravels before the five years are out?

And if that is the case, is the DA response of issuing ultimatums not playing into the hands of those that are anti-GNU with the DA as the ANC’s major partner?

A hundred days in office in a five-year deal is a milestone but it is important to remember that it’s only 5% of the journey.

The other 95% could see the GNU unravel if these tit-for-tat clashes are not resolved.

Both Zille and the Gauteng ANC might get what they’re hoping for.

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Zille could get a weaker ANC – that might even oust Ramaphosa before 2029 – and Panyaza could drive the DA out of the GNU.

The biggest loser in both scenarios would be the voters who would then watch kidnappings increase, unemployment spiral and service delivery collapse as the country steps back another decade into instability.