So the country’s top public foundations — organisations allied mostly with former ANC leaders — have dramatically pulled out of the forthcoming national dialogue, citing unreasonable political pressure from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government to conform to rigid dates and logistics designed by the state and which the foundations claim threaten to rob the dialogue of its original civic intent.
They want at least a two-month delay to Ramaphosa’s decision that the dialogue would begin thousands of meetings and conventions on August 15. Their so far temporary withdrawal is a substantial blow to the president’s prestige and authority — he has been touting the dialogue as an important political moment for a year.
The foundations named for Steve Biko, Thabo Mbeki, Albert Luthuli, Desmond Tutu, Oliver Tambo and FW de Klerk say “the principles and important nature of being a citizen-led process are being sacrificed for the sake of expedience”.
No other leader of the ANC has faced a public rebellion by its political elite on this scale before, and Ramaphosa will have to scramble to escape it without losing face. He has already had stiff domestic criticism for his handling of trade negotiations with Washington and the failure of his appointment of former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas as a special envoy to the US. The Americans have declined to speak to Jonas and South Africa has not had a fully functioning embassy in Washington since 2022.
The foundations are under pressure too. Only the state has the money to fund the dialogue they propose, but they risk being seen as a tool of the government if they bow to Ramaphosa’s diary, driven as it is by his urgent need for political success.
The DA, meanwhile, will take quiet, or perhaps noisy, comfort from Ramaphosa’s discomfort even though, without the dialogue to boycott, it will effectively have taken no action to protest against Ramaphosa’s sacking of the DA’s Andrew Whitfield as deputy trade, industry & competition minister for travelling to the US in February without permission. He was suddenly fired close to 50 days ago, and though DA leader John Steenhuisen was invited at the time by Ramaphosa to nominate a successor, he has so far not done so. Why the wait?
The DA was quick to draw attention to the fact that Jonas had conducted no direct talks with the Americans 60 and then 90 days after his appointment, but Steenhuisen’s own failure to replace Whitfield at the department of trade, industry & competition has a whiff of negligence about it too. Would a DA voice in the department most directly involved in trying to counter President Donald Trump’s 30% duty on South African imports not now be particularly useful? Why deny our exporters all the intellectual muscle available?
The road to 30% of the national vote doesn’t stop at Nuanceville. Voters, white and black, want to be appealed to. Coloured people too, which is why the Patriotic Alliance is growing.
Both the ANC and the DA leaders will swat away their immediate shortcomings as insubstantial, but in my humble opinion both are underperforming. Ramaphosa comes up for re-election as leader of his party in 2027. Steenhuisen’s turn is next April, and so far he is the only candidate to put his hand up. Surely that cannot stand?
I’m not a fan of the DA helping the ANC out in the government of national unity, but I understand the arguments in its favour. At least two DA ministers, Dean Macpherson at public works and Leon Schreiber at home affairs, have been really good. But as time goes by the partnership is going to become increasingly difficult inside the restive parties.
Any challenger to Steenhuisen will probably have to commit to the coalition, but will also need to quickly come up with an inclusive new style and policy positions if the DA is to move forward.
I know the DA considers race-based policy beneath it, but it’s an expensive conceit here, whatever the polls might be saying this far away from a real election. The road to 30% of the national vote doesn’t stop at Nuanceville. Voters, white and black, want to be appealed to. Coloured people too, which is why the Patriotic Alliance is growing. The DA’s job is to make black voters feel specifically at home in the party, just as so many white voters do.
Obviously it won’t be easy, but it’s where a new leader matters. Compelling leaders can straddle impossible divides. The DA publishes a major new economic policy tomorrow and it will provide insight into its current thinking. Now that the dialogue is likely to be delayed, the DA can expect longer and deeper scrutiny of its new policy.
That could be good or bad for its authors.
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