The EFF has put its cards on the table by calling for the ANC to remove the DA as a GNU partner as a condition for its vote in support of the budget.
However, the ANC is said to be looking at a different path as lobbying for ActionSA to be included in the GNU continues.
The ANC met the EFF, ActionSA and the MK Party this week in the hopes of wooing them into voting for the budget, which includes the controversial 0.5 percentage point increase in VAT. Parliament has less than two weeks to approve the VAT hike before its implementation on May 1.
The ANC is said to have paused negotiations with the DA, opting to first engage other parties before meeting DA leader John Steenhuisen. Speaking to journalists during its Human Rights Day rally on Friday, EFF secretary-general Marshal Dlamini said the red berets would get into serious negotiations with the ANC on the GNU when the DA and the Freedom Front are removed from government.
Dlamini, however, reiterated the party’s position on the VAT increase as a red line item in any GNU negotiations.
“We are ready to participate in government but not with racists. We are here today in Sharpeville to remember our fallen heroes simply because of the apartheid government and you want us to sit and share the corridors of power with the beneficiaries of apartheid,” he said.
ANC chief whip Mdumiseni Ntuli told the Sunday Times the party’s delegation met the EFF and MK Party on Wednesday and ActionSA on Friday. Ntuli would not be drawn on whether the EFF had called for inclusion in the GNU but said all three parties raised concerns over the VAT increase.
He said MK and the EFF expressed concern about whether the government could protect the zero-rated basket. “Their main concern is that once this is not properly enlarged, the poor will be vulnerable.”
Ntuli said the MK delegation made suggestions for the government to avoid a VAT increase by allowing for the government to stop contributing to the pension fund this year and redirect the money to the economy.
Ntuli said the MK Party and the EFF also suggested a need to strengthen Sars and fight corruption and waste. Ntuli said the ANC was aligned with some of the proposals tabled at the meeting but it told the parties the suggestions were long-term arrangements while the government needed urgently to plug the shortfall.
Ntuli said the ANC was happy with the bilateral meeting it had with ActionSA, adding that the meeting agreed that ActionSA would submit a written response during the week.
The message we want to go out strongly is that we have approached political parties, we have met them and our engagements with them were constructive
— Mdumiseni Ntuli, ANC chief whip
“This was the first round of talks with each party. We will have a second round next week,” Ntuli said on Friday.
“The message we want to go out strongly is that we have approached political parties, we have met them and our engagements with them were constructive. Those engagements have reassured us that political parties are willing to find a solution — and we will find one.”
The ANC has been debating whether it should continue its relationship with the DA in government after the impasse on the budget. The Sunday Times previously reported that the DA had rejected the budget after President Cyril Ramaphosa snubbed proposals from its leader, John Steenhuisen.
The proposals included that Ramaphosa appoint the World Bank to conduct “a full regulatory review of the state”. The DA also demanded that Steenhuisen and Ramaphosa jointly announce an agreement on the amended budget before it was tabled by Godongwana. It also proposed that its deputy finance minister Ashor Sarupen assume joint responsibility to oversee spending.
These demands by the DA led to the ANC’s top brass deploying a delegation led by Ntuli to negotiate with other parties. The delegation included minister of monitoring and evaluation Maropene Ramokgopa, deputy minister for trade and industry Zuko Godlimpi, deputy chief whip Doris Dlakude, chair of the standing committee on finance Joe Maswanganyi and chair of the portfolio committee on basic education Joy Maimela.
The EFF delegation included its chief whip and party chair Nontando Nolutshungu, Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi, Veronica Mente and Natasha Ntlangwini, while the MK Party delegation was led by party deputy president John Hlophe and Muzi Ntshingila.
According to four national working committee (NWC) members who spoke on condition of anonymity, the ANC is making contingency measures to mitigate against a possible exit by the DA. The ANC leaders said while Julius Malema had indicated he would want to join the GNU, the EFF would be the last resort.
One ANC leader added that while there was anxiety in the party about partnering the EFF, given South Africa’s strained relations with US president Donald Trump's administration, the demands by the DA made it impossible to have a good working relationship. Another NWC member said the notion that if the DA left the GNU the coalition would collapse was “utter nonsense”.
They said there was a fear that colluding with the EFF would create a worse impression of the GNU among global players.
“I can confidently say that if the DA leaves the GNU, Herman Mashaba will be more comfortable to join. But in terms of the budget, ActionSA is important because the GNU has 287 of the 400 MPs. The DA has 87 and if you take them out we have 200; if you count out the FF Plus, we have 194. The moment you bring in ActionSA you go back 200, and if we can get another smaller party, maybe with two seats, we have the numbers we need,” one ANC leader said.
ActionSA chair Michael Beaumont, who led his party's delegation to the meeting, said the party met the ANC to discuss its intentions towards the budget, arguing that ActionSA would play a pivotal role in determining the budget's onward passage.
“The meeting was positive. ActionSA conveyed to the ANC that the budget in its present form would not be something ActionSA supported and conveyed a number of changes and conditions regarding both the budget and governance that would need to be met before we could support the budget.
“It was the beginning of a process and we anticipate there will be further engagements.”
Beaumont said ActionSA had discussed joining the GNU, adding that its posture had not changed in wanting to contribute to a strong opposition in parliament.
“If the current configuration of the GNU stands, we must play the role of opposition and that is the role that we will play,” Beaumont said.
However, one ANC leader spoke for the DA, arguing that the ANC would need to negotiate with the DA on its demands and make concessions where it could. The leader said the DA risked alienating the realists in the ANC who had until then favoured working with the DA.
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