On balance, in the theatre of the absurd surrounding the sacking of the DA’s Andrew Whitfield as deputy minister of trade, industry & competition on Wednesday by President Cyril Ramaphosa, the DA comes off as the slightly more ridiculous. But it is marginal.
And based on that slim margin — was Ramaphosa trying deliberately to collapse the GNU or was he genuinely aggrieved by the fact that Whitfield, back in February, travelled to the US in a DA delegation without explicit presidential approval — DA leader John Steenhuisen gave Ramaphosa what sounded like a chilling ultimatum.
Steenhuisen lost, or affected to lose, his cool on Thursday when he denounced Whitfield’s firing and promised it would go down, unless Ramaphosa also fired a string of ANC ministers accused of various levels of criminality or incompetence, as “the greatest political mistake in modern South African history”. You’d have been forgiven for thinking he was going to take the DA out of the GNU, but by late Friday Ramaphosa had replied and put pressure back on Steenhuisen.
Ramaphosa said firing ministers was his prerogative and that he had asked Steenhuisen to name a replacement for Whitfield, a fact Steenhuisen appears to deliberately have not included in his initial version of events. Steenhuisen’s dilemma was that he has had the DA roll over for Ramaphosa and the GNU so many times now, how would replacing a deputy minister rank as a deal-breaker?
So he did what he has always done so far. He rolled over. The “greatest mistake” will now be met with a DA boycott of the National Dialogue, which is not even an ANC programme.
Ramaphosa knew exactly what he was doing. The pretence at outrage that Whitfield should travel unauthorised is absurd. My guess is Ramaphosa acted under pressure from ANC leaders unhappy with the GNU arrangement.
Why wait four months to act against a travel transgression? After Whitfield’s February trip he again asked Ramaphosa for permission to travel to the US, this time to attend a short course, at his own expense, at Harvard University.
The course was on “inclusive economic growth” but Ramaphosa expressly and spitefully, and in writing, refused, oblivious to both the irony and to the fact that Whitfield was largely ignored at the department and had a lot of time on his hands.
The department is ground zero for the only viable political tool left in the ANC arsenal — widening BEE rules and regulations to more aspects of South African economic life despite a growing chorus of voices questioning BEE’s economic efficacy. BEE is the ditch the ANC has decided it will die in.
Keeping a DA deputy who would have opposed each and every ratchet of the BEE reel at the department was just asking for trouble
Keeping a DA deputy who would have opposed each and every ratchet of the BEE reel at the department was just asking for trouble. Whitfield had gone to ground by late Friday, but I understand he kept a detailed record of every policy objection he raised with trade, industry & competition minister Parks Tau. Many books will be written about this time in our politics, whether the DA comes or goes.
By now markets will have long discounted a GNU collapse, at least with the DA in it, and Ramaphosa, if he had to, would probably try to cobble together an untidy coalition of smaller parties, excluding the EFF or Jacob Zuma’s MKP, to go forward with. Ramaphosa, having again demonstrated his weakness before a party he once thought he could reform, would keep his job.
For Steenhuisen things are different. The Whitfield sacking has become an issue in the DA’s leadership race, with party elections scheduled for next April. Former leader Helen Zille, now chair of the DA federal executive, has wisely chosen to contest for the right to represent the DA as the mayoral candidate for Johannesburg in next year’s local government elections. I would expect her to do extremely well.
Steenhuisen, though, has let it be known he is available for re-election as leader next year. That might be a ploy to keep out of the race Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, who has said he wouldn’t stand against his friend. But that decision may not be in his hands much longer. Steenhuisen lacks gravitas and hasn’t made much of a mark, attracting fewer votes in 2024 (though a very marginal increase in percentage of the vote) than his predecessor Mmusi Maimane won in 2019, a result for which Maimane was fired.
I would expect more chilling ultimatums from Jumpy John in the months to come.
For opinion and analysis consideration, e-mail Opinions@timeslive.co.za
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