The Cabinet lekgotla of the government of national unity (GNU) took place at the Sefako Makgatho Presidential Guest House in Pretoria. Photo: GCIS
The ANC is adamant it is in full control of the government of national unity (GNU) and therefore the owner of the process despite the DA’s Helen Zille asserting that her party is co-governing on equal terms with the ANC.
But an expert was of the firm view that the GNU was a partnership between the ANC and the DA, even as the ANC tried to deny that.
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University of KwaZulu-Natal politics lecturer Zakhele Ndlovu said the GNU was a coalition between the ANC and the DA, but the ANC was trying to avoid being seen as sleeping with the enemy.
“The ANC is trying to ensure it does not come across as colluding with a white party, the DA.
That is why they rope in other small parties to participate in the GNU so as to dilute the idea that they are working with the enemy,” Ndlovu said.
Ndlovu said DA leader John Steenhuisen and other DA Cabinet ministers needed to work to deliver to the poor as well so people see that they also have their interests at heart.
“That way the GNU will gain credibility and also those who doubt it among the black voters,” Ndlovu said.
At the weekend, ANC acting national spokesperson Zuko Godlimpi said the GNU was an ANC initiative and other parties were invited by it to join the structure.
This made the ANC the driver of the process. Godlimpi was responding to Zille who stated earlier that the GNU was a coalition of only two parties – the ANC and the DA – implying that the remaining parties in the coalition did not matter.
But during a media briefing on the sidelines of the ANC national executive committee meeting in Boksburg, Godlimpi rejected this notion saying all the parties in the government were equally important and that no party would overwhelm the ANC because the GNU was its idea.
Political economy analyst Daniel Silke said indeed any serious enmity between the DA and the ANC was bound to capsize the boat.
He said should the DA pull out of the GNU, the ANC would have to form a new coalition government with the populist parties, the EFF and uMkhonto weSizwe party.
“At the moment we see the ANC trying to tell its own supporters that it is in control and the DA is simply a guest that it would be happy to see leave, a sort of aggressive stance,” Silke said.
He said the ANC appeared willing to exclude the DA from certain governance deals such as the Gauteng metros and Gauteng provincial administration.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, giving an overview to the ANC NEC, said the GNU was different from a typical coalition and nor was it a forum of allied or like-minded parties.
“The NEC meeting reaffirmed, unanimously, the position that the GNU is the best tactical option that has the greatest possibility to improve the lives of the people of South Africa,” Ramaphosa said.
Silke said: “The DA holds a very important card here despite the fact that it is clearly half the size of the ANC.
“Both parties clearly have an interest in this providing them with sufficient grounds to continue the GNU. The ANC has become very weary of the accusation that it has become a sellout party.”
Nationally the DA had to account to its supporters for failing to negotiate for sufficient Cabinet positions commensurate with its electoral results.
However, the DA leadership was satisfied with what it got as long as it prevented an ANC-EFF coalition.
“You see the parties trying to carve out their own identity within this GNU. The GNU has to present a much better consolidated public relations message. If we have big parties biting each other’s ankles, it is going to undermine the confidence in the GNU.”
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