In a sense, the DA’s decision to boycott the national dialogue and withhold support for budgets tabled by ANC ministers it disapproves of — apparently in retaliation for the dismissal from the government of national unity of its deputy minister in the department of trade, industry & competition — is understandable.
During the life of the GNU, the DA has seen President Cyril Ramaphosa and his party transgress every red line it has drawn, and with little consequence. These actions range from Ramaphosa signing into law the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act, which the DA had campaigned unsuccessfully to prevent, to the president’s dismissal of deputy minister Andrew Whitfield for having travelled to the US without the requisite permission.
For DA supporters, recent events would suggest the party has little reason to stay on in the GNU. Whatever success the party has achieved has been won outside the GNU, and especially in the courts.
Whitfield’s firing will be seen by many as the last straw for the DA. But few will see the logic of responding to it by boycotting the national dialogue, especially as the dispute is located firmly within the GNU itself. It is unlikely the DA’s response, which seems to have been taken in a fit of pique, will force Ramaphosa and the ANC to mend their ways and deal with the DA more as a valued partner than a necessary evil in the GNU. For now, the DA leadership seems to have been able to hold the line by keeping the party in the GNU. But pressure to leave can only be expected to increase.
No matter their differences, the ANC and the DA, together with the other GNU parties, must keep in mind their responsibility to ensure stability and safety
As things stand, the DA is caught between a rock and a hard place. Given its stated raison d’être for being in the GNU — to keep the EFF and MK Party out of government — its departure could open the way for just that outcome. This is especially so because a substantial lobby in the ANC is sympathetic to joining forces with either or both of the radical parties.
So far, Ramaphosa and the ANC have been able to get away with riding roughshod over the DA. While such conduct might lead to a heady rush of triumphalism at Luthuli House, it is nevertheless a reckless strategy with unpredictable consequences.
Both parties are obviously acting with an eye on next year’s local elections, with a view to retaining or shoring up their support.
Notwithstanding the sectarian imperatives, the DA and the ANC should be reminded of the GNU statement of intent, signed by both and committing member parties to “act to ensure stability and peace” in the country, among other things. It also recognises that, after last year’s elections, South Africans “expect us to work together as political parties” to “usher in a new era of peace, justice and prosperity for all”.
Deliberately breaking up the GNU will go against the parties’ pledge to South Africans. Apart from taking South Africa into an era of political uncertainty and undermining citizens’ confidence in the future, such an eventuality would also risk accelerating growing voter alienation from the political system — a phenomenon noted by the parties in the statement of intent itself.
No matter their differences, the ANC and the DA, together with the other GNU parties, must keep in mind their responsibility to ensure stability and safety. Both of these are prerequisites to economic growth and job creation desperately needed to improve the quality of life of all South Africans, irrespective of political persuasion. This responsibility is one which all parties must take seriously, instead of merely paying lip service to it.
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