The DA joined the government of national unity (GNU) to achieve faster economic growth and bring down unemployment, and if this did not materialise by the next general election the party and every other governing party would be in “real trouble”, former DA leader and author Tony Leon warned on Monday.
However, fast-tracking economic growth by improving the ease of doing business and getting a job brought the DA into direct conflict with ANC orthodoxy and the obstacles it has put in the way to achieve this, Leon said.
He was speaking with Cape Talk host John Maytham at the Cape Town Press Club during a question-and-answer session on his new book.
Leon, also a former ambassador to Argentina, has just published Being There: Backstories from the Political Front, which deals in part with his participation in the negotiations leading up to the formation of the GNU and his time as leader of the DA.
He said the continuance of the GNU was in itself an achievement and testified to the maturity of its two main parties, the ANC and the DA.
“The fact that it survives is perhaps testament to some good things happening,” Leon said, but agreed with Maytham’s comment that people don’t want the GNU to fail more than they want it to work.
People wanted the GNU to continue because if it didn’t a much worse alternative would come in and blow the economy to smithereens, Leon noted.
“So in a way it is a negative thing but the continuance of the GNU is important to a lot of people,” Leon said. He referred to a statement by DA leader John Steenhuisen saying the DA was not going to leave the GNU.
However, there were stress points on the horizon, particularly the upcoming local government elections in 2026/27 and the ANC national elective conference in December 2027, when being anti-DA would be a strong rallying point for a strong faction in the ANC which wants it removed from the GNU.
Leon said he would be surprised if the GNU lasted till the next general election if deputy president Paul Mashatile were to be elected leader of the ANC in 2027.
Mashatile and mineral & petroleum resources minister Gwede Mantashe were vehemently opposed to the DA entering the GNU, while Mashatile expressed further antagonism towards the party after its refusal to support the budget and proposed VAT increase.
Leon said while the DA with 22% of the vote did not have the executive power wielded by the ANC with 40%, it did have parliamentary power which it exercised during the vote on the budget because the ANC does not have a parliamentary majority.
He said having DA federal council chair Helen Zille had its complications — in his book he expresses doubt about the value of her continued presence at the top of the DA’s organisation — but she had played an important role in the GNU negotiations.
Zille, who started off opposed to a GNU came to support it on the grounds that the DA could not walk away because of mounting outside pressures.
It was also out of economic responsibility as talk of a GNU breakdown led to a rising bond rate and a falling rand exchange rate. The DA would be blamed if it walked out and President Cyril Ramaphosa would be the beneficiary.
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