Some senior DA members pushed for the party to quit the government of national unity (GNU) at a two-hour federal executive meeting yesterday, but were defeated by a strong camp aligned with leader John Steenhuisen.
The tension between the DA and the ANC ratcheted up further when President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, said Steenhuisen’s decision to boycott the coming national dialogue could be seen as insubordination.
The DA meeting was called to decide the way forward after Ramaphosa ignored Steenhuisen’s 48-hour ultimatum issued on Thursday that he should fire two ministers and a deputy minister implicated in state capture, corruption and deliberately misleading parliament.
The ultimatum was issued hours after Ramaphosa’s shock sacking of DA deputy minister of trade, industry & competition, Andrew Whitfield, for “insubordination” after he flew to the US without the president’s permission at the height of diplomatic tensions between Pretoria and Washington.
DA sources who attended the meeting said there had been a new push for the party to walk out of the GNU, but Steenhuisen and his backers, including some cabinet ministers, shot it down.
Federal council chair Helen Zille said party leaders “had a strong debate” about tabling a motion of no confidence in Ramaphosa, but this proposal was also rejected.
Other DA leaders said those who were arguing for a GNU exit were disproportionately small in number during discussions on the motion.
In a statement issued after the meeting, Steenhuisen said the DA had resolved to vote against the upcoming budgets of the two ANC ministers it wants sacked — Nobuhle Nkabane of higher education and Thembi Simelane of human settlements.
Even before Thursday’s developments, Ramaphosa had been under pressure to fire Nkabane over the saga of her appointments of politically connected figures as chairs of sector education & training authorities (Setas). There are strong suggestions she lied to parliament.
The DA demanded Simelane’s head because she has been implicated in the VBS Mutual Bank corruption scandal. Steenhuisen included David Mahlobo, deputy minister of water & sanitation, among those who should be fired.
“We all know that [a motion of no confidence] is the nuclear option,” Zille said. “And we decided that we should use our numbers to do other actions against the corrupt ministers by voting against their budget votes in parliament.”
Zille said the DA was “not afraid” to take further action. “There was an argument to say it’s time for a motion of no confidence against the president,” she said.
It’s not that he went to the US without permission, he directly defied the order that the president gave to us in the cabinet
— Cabinet member
“Then he would have fired us from the GNU. We won’t do him a favour and leave. He must fire us from the GNU and let it be on his shoulders that the EFF and MK Party come into government.
“He must do that, we’re not going to make it easy for him, but we have the numbers to do a motion of no confidence on him, and it’s not off the table.”
Steenhuisen told the meeting that leaving GNU would be “a disaster” for governance in the country with dire economic implications. He said the federal executive would in the coming days be discussing whose name should be submitted to Ramaphosa as a replacement for Whitfield.
Even though he fired Whitfield, Ramaphosa has kept the position for the DA, in line with the agreement struck during the formation of the GNU last year. Ramaphosa has allocated the DA six ministerial and six deputy minister positions in his executive.
The DA has also resolved to boycott the planned national dialogue, due to be held in the coming months to discuss the country’s socioeconomic problems. Steenhuisen argued that the national dialogue was a needless talk shop that was projected to cost more than R700m and would only do the ANC’s bidding.
It remains to be seen if Steenhuisen, who is also agriculture minister, will continue serving on the national dialogue’s interministerial committee led by Deputy President Paul Mashatile.
Cabinet insiders said Ramaphosa had made it clear in a cabinet meeting at the height of the diplomatic crisis with the Trump administration that no-one in his executive should travel to the US until the tensions had eased.
Whitfield, the insiders said, had therefore not only defied Ramaphosa but violated a cabinet decision.
“It’s not that he went to the US without permission, he directly defied the order that the president gave to us in the cabinet,” said a cabinet member.
Steenhuisen has argued that Whitfield sent a request to the Presidency for permission to travel but received no response. But one cabinet member said this could not be used as a defence for Whitfield’s decision to defy the no-travel order.
The DA’s minister of forestry, fisheries & the environment, Dion George, had been expected to join Whitfield in the DA delegation to the US but cancelled his participation due to Ramaphosa’s instruction, this cabinet member said.
This source said: “It was minister George who said in the meeting that some of us want to go [to Washington], but as party representatives, and not as part of the executive. But the President said ‘no you are not allowed to go there.’
“So what Whitfield did there was a direct defiance against the orders of the president because basically there was a cabinet decision on this and everyone was barred from going to the US.”
This cabinet source said Ramaphosa was unfazed by the threats the DA was making. “So it really doesn’t matter what they do or say because the president is not going to reverse [Whitfield’s sacking], he’s not going to do it,” the insider said.
Magwenya said Steehuisen would have to explain himself to the president should he withdraw from the national dialogue.
“Any member of cabinet who wishes to no longer participate in the interministerial committee will have to provide reasons to the president,” he said. “Hopefully they’ll also think about the consequences of such insubordination. Because that’s how the president will regard any nonparticipation, as insubordination.”
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