Beaten ANC pushes for government of national unity

The ANC will go shopping for partners to help it form a government by selling the idea of government of national unity (GNU) to those headed for parliament.

The decision was taken at a meeting of top leadership on Saturday.

The ANC will tell potential partners that president Cyril Ramaphosa would remain in the Union Buildings and his removal is not up for discussion.

Insiders privy to the discussion said the party had decided that the formation of a GNU should be the first step as speculation is rife on whether the ANC would go to bed with the DA, or MK Party and the EFF.

The GNU option is perceived as an attempt by the ANC to manage the process of forming a government and avoid the backlash that would come with choosing between the DA and the MK Party and EFF.

The Sunday Times understands that the party had four options:

• a government of national unity;
• a grand coalition;
• a minority government; or
• call for a re-run of the elections

Party insiders said the party would tell the potential partners that they would have to agree on passing of the budget, security, protecting the constitution and the judiciary. The deal would open the way for opposition leaders to be elected as speaker of the National Assembly. It also means that Ramaphosa could appoint a deputy president who is not a leader of the ANC. As another compromise, the party would offer that the finance minister be recruited from respected financial institutions.

“We have looked at the outcomes and permutations. In that consideration, we then looked at how ... we map the way forward. One of those is to go for what we call a government of national unity, bring everybody on board. We have the 40% that is solidly ANC that when you enter into a government of national unity, you bring everybody on board and then agree on a set of principles,” said an insider.

After 30 years of uninterrupted ANC rule, the ruling party was forced below 40% this week, largely due to the MK Party of former president Jacob Zuma surging to a shock victory in KwaZulu-Natal and ending the national elections on 15%.

The decision of the national officials puts to rest speculation about Ramaphosa’s future. Parties such as MK Party are said to be demanding that Ramaphosa not return in exchange for helping the ANC form a government. 

Ramaphosa’s allies yesterday said he was upbeat and had expressed no intention of resigning ahead of coalition negotiations.

ANC deputy secretary-general Nomvula Mokonyane would not confirm discussions held by the national officials, but said the ANC planned to talk to all parties about the way forward.

“Voting has come and passed, we are almost at 98% plus of the results. It does indicate that from 2021 local government elections where the ANC got 5-million we are now at six which means again there is a steady improvement though it is not what we had expected,” said Mokonyane.

“Of importance is the low voter turnout. Everybody assumed there is a huge voter turnout and, therefore, what the ANC is going to do — we will take what the voters have given us and seek to work with everybody in South Africa to promote stability, as well as bringing peace and harmony.”

“Organisationally, our non-negotiable is the issue of the president. He can’t be used as a bargaining chip. We will not want to enter that one at all. Any other issues that are managed or run by the judiciary, we should not be brought in,” said Mokonyane. 

ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe confirmed to the Sunday Times that he has been tasked with holding talks with Zuma’s MK Party.

Both the DA and the EFF have publicly expressed their willingness to assist the ANC form a government. However, EFF leader Julius Malema said his party would not form part of any government of national unity to avoid “working with wrong people”.

Though Zuma's daughter, Duduzile, has said the party would not work with the ANC, senior party leaders were confident the party would entertain talks with the governing party.

Even though ANC officials have agreed on the approach, ANC leaders are split on the selection of a coalition partner should the idea of a grand coalition GNU fail to gain momentum.

This would force the ANC to choose which parties to coalesce with.

It’s understood that the DA was not keen on working with ANC-coalition government that was not led by Ramaphosa as they were of the view that there were few credible leaders left in the ANC

Many of Ramaphosa’s allies in the national executive committee (NEC), the ANC's highest decision-making body, are believed to prefer working with the DA, while some — including Mantashe, are said to be unconvinced.

The DA and IFP option would see the official opposition taking control of parliament, while the IFP would be accommodated in Ramaphosa’s executive.

Malema on Saturday announced his party would not demand Ramaphosa’s removal, a reversal of an earlier demand. Instead it wants the position of speaker of National Assembly and the ministry of finance.

Insiders said the coalition with EFF and IFP was most popular within the NEC.

However, any inclusion of the EFF within government would rattle markets because of the party’s radical economic policies.

If all negotiations fail, the ANC has another option — attempting to form a minority government without any agreement with other parties.

Informal talks began in earnest on the floor of the IEC national results operations centre as soon as it became clear that the ANC would not reach a majority.

Major political parties are expected to hold meetings in the coming days to decide how to approach coalition negotiations.

The DA’s federal executive, the party’s top decision-making body, is due to meet today to adopt a formal position.

The meeting was also expected to appoint a team of DA negotiators and for party leader John Steenhuisen to outline the party’s stance.

Helen Zille, who oversees the DA’s day to day affairs as chair of the Federal Council, said the Fedex meeting would also prepare for the “hard negotiations” expected to start this week.

Zille said the DA was probing five possible options, including one in which one coalition partner stays in government, while the other runs the national legislature.

She said the five options would be discussed at today’s Fedex meeting.

“The one is for us to stay in opposition. The other is for us to go into a full-blown coalition, those are the two extremes,” said Zille. “And there are various other options in between, there’s the confidence and supply model in which one party takes all the oversight positions and the other party takes the government positions.

“There’s a minority government option. There are linkage options in which you link Gauteng with what happens at national or in various other options. There are many models and we are investigating each one of them.”

Asked if they would go into a coalition with the ANC, Zille said her party wanted to keep the EFF and the MK Party from being part of government.

“During the election campaign, we did give an undertaking to the country, we will do whatever is necessary to keep out what we call the doomsday coalition of the ANC/MK/EFF and we will strive to achieve that because that will be doomsday for SA,” she said.

It’s also understood that the DA was not keen on working with ANC-coalition government that was not led by Ramaphosa as they were of the view that there were few credible leaders left in the ANC.

Malema, on the other hand, said it would be up to the ANC whether they kept Ramaphosa or not. The EFF leader said he wanted to work with the ANC in a national coalition arguing that historically, the ANC had never recovered from an electoral loss. 

“An ANC when compromised is not arrogant,” he said. 

Lobbying among ANC leaders intensified yesterday as they tried to convince each other which was a better option for the governing party.

ANC Northern Cape chairperson Zamani Saul told the Sunday Times he was looking forward to the debate about the coalitions in the NEC. “There is no perfect partner for the ANC. We will have to tactically manoeuvre and weigh the risks of each and every possible design of the coalitions,” he said.

A senior leader told the Sunday Times that he was in support of working with the MK Party even if it meant Ramaphosa should step down.

“Our votes are with MK, those are our people. If this man (Jacob Zuma) says I’ll sit at home and give you my numbers if Cyril stays at home then let’s look into that. I will not have a problem if the removal of the president is what stands in the way and we do that. So I’m saying let’s talk to this guy, let’s resolve those issues and get our numbers back so that we can continue to govern.”

An insider in Ramaphosa’s circle said that he preferred an ANC-DA coalition.

“I was fearing he might be having thoughts of resigning, but he seems to be upbeat and expressed no inclination to resign when we spoke. But also, my view is that even if that was the case we cannot allow it to happen,” they said. 

“He shares my view of an ANC-DA coalition. His [Ramaphosa’s] view is that the MK Party represents the antithesis of renewal. Remember that those at the helm in MK were against the renewal of the ANC. So if you partner with MK you automatically reverse renewal when the president has been trying to revive it. It’s also linked to his legacy in the ANC,” they said. 

But Ramaphosa’s ally, Mantashe, is said to be among those hostile to the idea.

An NEC member said that they believed Mantashe could be convinced otherwise. 

“Gwede is a collective person, he is not difficult. He respects Ramaphosa so it will depend on their discussions,” he said. 

Another NEC member who is part of the grouping that is lobbying for the ANC to coalesce with the MK Party and the EFF said that Mantashe would be the preferred official to approach Zuma to negotiate with Zuma. 

“There is a historical relationship there and the two men understand how the other thinks. It would not be difficult for Gwede to drive our position across. Take for instance the matter of changing the constitution, it's an area that Gwede would be able to articulate much more effectively to the old man [Zuma],” they said.

Those who prefer a DA-ANC coalition claimed their perspective for the party to form a coalition with the DA was gaining ground with the more experienced NEC members and those in government, while the younger cohort was advocating for the ANC to partner with Zuma and Malema’s EFF. 

“The fear that some of us have is the use of blackmail by the EFF and the MK [party]. The MK Party was formed on the basis that the ANC under Ramaphosa was sold to capitalists and Ramaphosa represents white interests.

“But as things stand, white people left the ANC ... What we cannot compromise on especially, as it relates to foreign policy, when entering these talks is that when we say we are non-aligned, we are non-aligned and there must be no other strong views. When we say there is a genocide, there is a genocide.

“It won’t be easy to discuss coalitions with the DA going forward, but the beauty of the DA is that it has interests at the heart of South Africa. Its core constituency wants stability for the country from a business point of view and also from a developmental point of view. The risk is larger when there is instability and that risk will affect more the DA base because given that they have business on their side,” they said.

Another senior warned of “instability and chaos” should the ANC consider a coalition with the EFF. “How do you manage Juju’s ego in a coalition?” they asked.

The MK Party, another leader said, was not a desirable partner.

“You see there’s nothing ideological about MK other than being angry, vengeful, power hungry ... because Zuma could have done what he promises to do in the 20 years he was in the leadership of the ANC.”