The ANC is facing a threat to its survival as government of national unity (GNU) partner the DA pushes back at transformative laws aimed at economic redress in post- apartheid SA.
Several ANC policies aimed at transformation are currently being challenged in courts by the private sector and the DA, its biggest partner in the GNU.
This includes the legal battle against the Expropriation Act, which addresses whether privately owned land can be seized for public good without compensation; the broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) legal sector code implemented to ensure black practitioners have strengthened ownership of the country’s law firms; National Health Insurance (NHI), which sets into motion the plan for universal health coverage; and the Employment Equity Amendment Act (EE).
In each of the cases, applicants focus on specific provisions of the policies and challenge their constitutionality.
Political analyst Prof Dirk Kotze says if these cases succeed and the ANC fails in its transformation agenda, it could be the nail in the coffin for the party.
The ANC experienced its biggest electoral loss in the 2024 general elections, receiving only 40.18% of the total vote, and lost majority power 30 years into democracy.
This came amid continued high levels of unemployment and inequality in SA and an ever-rising cost of living in which the tax payer is constantly asked to pay more for government’s mismanagement of the economy.
Kotze said the ANC was under immense pressure to win the transformation fight because failure to do so threatens its very survival on delivering to the party’s constituency.
“Transformation is everything to the ANC,” he said. “It is the very essence of the ANC’s identity, that is what the ANC stands for.
“If their results [governance performance] are not satisfactory to the majority, they have a crisis on their hands. Lack of transformation is the reason they are where they are now,” he said.
Kotze said dissatisfaction with some of the transformative laws, such as BBBEE, has been challenged by the ANC internally, with some arguing the policies did not benefit the majority but only political elites.
The DA meanwhile has been accused of being anti-transformation. However, DA spokesperson Willie Aucamp told Business Day the party was in full support of transformation, but its main problem was the fine print on the ANC’s policies.
“The DA firmly rejects the accusation that it is anti-transformation,” Aucamp said. “On the contrary, we believe that genuine redress must uplift all South Africans and remove the obstacles that continue to exclude millions from economic participation.”
The DA has challenged specific laws on EE and the Expropriation Act.
“The policies entrench exclusion, undermine economic growth and violate the constitution,” Aucamp contended.
He added the time for race-based quotas is done.
“Race-based quotas and punitive expropriation provisions are not effective tools for redress. They entrench inefficiency, promote cadre enrichment and deter investment.”
While the DA and ANC form part of the GNU, policy differences between the parties have been left to the courts to decide.
Aucamp said being in the GNU did not mean the party “surrenders constitutional responsibilities or policy principles”, hence the legal challenges.
ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri described the ANC’s transformation agenda as being “under attack from a few beneficiaries of apartheid who are hell-bent on maintaining inequality after having lost their ground in the policymaking process.”
She said the legal showdowns were a method to delay transformation in SA.
The ANC’s economic transformation subcommittee head, Zuko Godlimpi, told Business Day those against transformation have “routinely tried to turn the legal system into their fighting stick against policies aimed at structural transformation.”
“The grammar of this effort changes over time to be about inadequacies of this legislation, but the substance is the same: retain relations of power that privilege the same historically defined group in terms of economic access, employment opportunity, higher education access and overall social upward mobility,” he said.
He contended that any successful push against transformative laws would be a major setback for not just for ANC, but SA and also a threat to social stability.
Political analyst Dr Levy Ndou said the row over transformation policies has been intensified since the formation of GNU, with the DA ministers expected to implement ANC policies.
Ndou said at heart the legal battle was the fight to serve different constituencies, with policy implementation being the lifeline of political parties.
“The manner in which the ANC responds to these challenges has the potential to make or break them,” he said.
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