In a week of high drama for the GNU, President Cyril Ramaphosa slapped down his critics, saying he had the support of the majority of ANC members and warned he would fire DA ministers who refused to implement government policy.
But in an apparent concession to his DA partners, Ramaphosa delayed implementation of key clauses of the contentious Basic Education Law Amendment (Bela) Bill for three months pending talks between the parties.
Striking an upbeat tone, Ramaphosa said he was confident the GNU would last the term and took a swipe at ANC alliance leaders who have called the new government a sellout for governing with the DA. He warned that the GNU was vital for South Africa's future and its collapse would be “ghastly” for the country and cast it into the “wilderness”.
Also this week, DA leader John Steenhuisen sought to calm jitters around the survival of the GNU by laying out the specific conditions under which the party would feel compelled to walk.
Ramaphosa told the Sunday Times he was confident he had the backing of the ANC’s grassroot structures on working with the DA, despite criticism from some prominent party members.
With the ANC scheduled to hold its national general council (NGC) next year, there is speculation that his opponents will seek to use this first gathering of party branches since the formation of the GNU to challenge the choice of the DA over the EFF and the MKP.
The NGC is a midterm ANC gathering in which party structures review the performance of the leadership since the last conference. Among the contentious topics will be the ANC’s poor performance at the polls and the subsequent decision to go into a coalition with the DA and other parties historically regarded as ideologically opposed to the ANC.
The party’s top leadership has spent the past few weeks visiting party structures around the country to review their performance in the elections and to explain the political choices that led to the formation of the GNU.
Speaking to the Sunday Times in a doorstep interview at the Union Buildings on Friday, Ramaphosa said he was confident his party’s rank and file supported the GNU and that he foresaw no serious opposition at the NGC. This means the president believes the GNU could last a full term.
His remarks came in a week in which the GNU faced its biggest challenge yet after the DA opposed his decision to sign the Bela Bill into law.
Basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube, a member of the DA, snubbed the signing ceremony on Friday, saying she remained opposed to the bill in its current form.
DA leader John Steenhuisen, who is Ramaphosa’s agriculture minister, has said the party would challenge the bill in court. The two parties also do not agree on national health insurance (NHI). This has prompted critics to suggest that the GNU had hit choppy waters, a view he dismisses, saying the partners are committed despite their differences.
After a dinner meeting on Wednesday with leaders of the coalition parties, Ramaphosa told political editors on Friday the GNU was 'durable'. All the leaders were committed to the coalition and none had expressed their intention to exit government
Some believe the biggest threat to the GNU comes from within the ANC itself, after prominent members publicly expressed unhappiness with the choice of the DA and the FF+. But Ramaphosa rejected this, too, telling the Sunday Times: “I’ve been to a number of provinces and spoken to ordinary members and they all support and subscribe to the GNU. They realise there was no other choice.
“And we put the choices to our members. One, we could have gone to opposition. Everyone says ‘no ways’. We could have gone with one or two parties. People say ‘no, we needed to include everyone’. Which is what we have opted for. So we will be able to carry people going forward.”
The SACP, one of the ANC’s key alliance partners, is the most vocal critic of the decision to work with the DA, saying the party should have considered parties such as the EFF and MKP. SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila has said the ANC decision to get into bed with the DA was a “sellout” and a “betrayal” of ANC voters.
Ramaphosa believes that is not the view of the SACP, but of Mapaila alone.
“If you have listened carefully, it has been solitary views of one person and that one person was involved in the discussions leading up to the decision. And his own members are in the GNU.”
Ramaphosa was referring to SACP national chair Blade Nzimande, Mapaila’s deputy David Masondo and central committee member Buti Manamela — who are all in his executive.
Some within the GNU, including DA federal chair Helen Zille, believe its survival depends on Ramaphosa staying on as president until the next elections. But this being Ramaphosa's last term as president of the ANC, there is a possibility that some within his party could want whoever succeeds him as party leader to immediately take over as the country's president.
Asked if he thinks he would finish his term, Ramaphosa said: “I intend to. But in the end I'm elected by my party. And if members have other views, I'm their servant. I'm not a dictator. I will never be, I have never been. I will implement the decisions of my party.”
After a dinner meeting on Wednesday with leaders of the coalition parties, Ramaphosa told political editors on Friday the GNU was “durable”. All the leaders were committed to the coalition and none had expressed their intention to exit government.
“Any party that says 'we’re leaving [the GNU]' would actually be leaving the people of South Africa,” he said. The new government had brought “a positive mood to the country and abroad” and ditching it was not an option.
“I think the GNU will work ... despite whatever challenges we have along the way.”
Steenhuisen adopted the same approach in an address to the Cape Town Press Club on Thursday.
“Our first instinct in the GNU will always be to find common ground in the interest of South Africa. We are working hand-in-hand with the ANC on every initiative that will take South Africa forward, and there is a long list of overlapping policies we have agreed on,” said Steenhuisen.
“But what we will not do is shy away from conflict when we are confronted with serious and lasting damage to our country or to the constitution that underpins our democracy.”
The bottom line for the DA is an economy that grows and creates jobs and if the GNU can’t do that, there is no point being part of it, said Steenhuisen.
“Indeed, if the ANC insists on taking South Africa down the path to economic ruin, it would be the DA’s patriotic duty to leave the government and use our position in parliament to stop the slide into catastrophe,” he said.
“Similarly, if the ANC in government sought to compromise the constitution, undermine the independence of key institutions like the Reserve Bank or do away with property rights, we will have no part in it.
The Wednesday dinner meeting decided to create a technical committee that would process issues of potential conflict before they reach party leaders. These would include the Bela and NHI bills
While Ramaphosa signed the Bela Bill into law, he made a compromise with the DA and other parties that are unhappy, particularly with clauses 4 and 5, which deal with admission policies of schools and the language of instruction.
Despite her boycott of the signing ceremony, Gwarube has said once the Bela Bill was law, she would have no choice but to implement it.
Ramaphosa said he was not concerned about Gwarube’s absence as he considered it a “minor issue”. But he said he would fire her if she had said she wouldn't implement the law.
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