Unless the talks between the ANC and the DA go really pear-shaped in the coming hours and days, former Western Cape judge president Mandlakayise John Hlophe is destined to be the leader of the official opposition in the National Assembly.
Negotiations over the composition of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s next cabinet are at a delicate stage with the two main parties in the nascent government of national unity (GNU) — the ANC and the DA — seemingly playing hard ball over who should get what post.
Probably buoyed by additional smaller parties signing up for the GNU, which increases the possibility of it securing at least 200 seats in the 400-seat National Assembly without needing the DA, ANC negotiators are said to be in no mood to concede too much to John Steenhuisen’s party and are insisting on keeping almost all of the strategic ministries for the ANC.
The DA on the other hand, as we report elsewhere, not only wants 10 cabinet posts but has now apparently put forward a potentially deal-breaking demand for Steenhuisen to be the country’s deputy president.
Deal-breaking because it may be something that Ramaphosa, even if he wanted to, might not be able to deliver without splitting the ANC.
Sacrificing Paul Mashatile for Steenhuisen could be a bridge too far for an ANC national leadership still battling to convince some of its lower structures that, given the outcomes of the May 29 elections, going into bed with the DA — rather than breakaway ANC groupings in the form of the EFF and the MK Party — is a sound political move.
Mind you, the former national liberation movement is due to hold its national general council (NGC) next winter. While the NGC has no power to elect or remove leaders, past experience — particularly in 2005 — shows that the forum can easily be used to stage a rebellion with devastating consequences for those in the leadership.
But then again the hardening of attitudes could all just be part of the negotiations games, with both parties trying to squeeze as many concessions as possible out of each other before cementing the final deal.
If that is the case, the DA’s role — which it has occupied since 1999 — as the official opposition will come to an end and the baton will pass to the country’s youngest political entity, Jacob Zuma’s seven-month-old MK Party.
The MK Party suddenly found itself in line to be the official opposition — but without MPs with the requisite skills and experience to do so
After initially refusing to have its 58 candidate MPs sworn in on the yet-to-be-substantiated grounds that the elections were rigged, the MK Party has changed its tune. While the party still plans to challenge the ballot outcome in the courts, even threatening to approach the International Court of Justice, its MPs will be sworn in on Tuesday.
Which begs the question: what has changed between this week and last week? If it was not right for the party to send its representatives to parliament for the opening while contesting the result, why is it acceptable now?
It would seem that the “boycott” was a ruse; the party was buying time while it tried to fix its candidates list. In the run-up to the polls it had submitted to the Electoral Commission a haphazardly compiled list of individuals who would make no meaningful contribution to the debates in the House.
As the third-largest party in the National Assembly, and with the ANC and the DA joining hands in a GNU, the MK Party suddenly found itself in line to be the official opposition — but without MPs with the requisite skills and experience to do so.
Hence the announcement of 21 changes to the original list of 58 people who will represent Zuma’s party in parliament.
As Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya, an incisive commentator on all things political and soccer-related, put it elsewhere: “the marquee announcement” is that of Hlophe as MK Party MP No 1.
Impeached by the very same parliament just two months ago as not “fit and proper” to serve as a judge, Hlophe could soon be bestowed with the official status of leader of the opposition in parliament.
A brilliant orator, great debater and highly intelligent, he adds some needed weight to the MK Party line-up and would most likely be a worthy sparring partner for Ramaphosa and Steenhuisen.
But his swearing in as an MP, although entirely legal, raises the same ethical questions first raised when impeached public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane returned to the public fold as an EFF MP.
Is the system saying a person deemed not “fit and proper” to hold office as a judge, public protector or head of any other Chapter 9 institution, is still acceptable as an MP? What does that say about parliamentary standards?
If the MK Party decides to have Hlophe as one of the opposition MPs who sit on the Judicial Services Commission, that would mean that while he is not deemed “fit and proper” to be a judge, he will have the power and influence to decide who is.
That does not sound right.
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