The endless wrestling between the ANC and the DA in the government of national unity (GNU) is painfully leading SA — and both parties — on a road to nowhere. Both parties are seeking to outdo each other in showmanship and spite, hardly a mature way to approach SA’s first coalition government at a national level.
The danger of this approach is that come election 2029, even greater numbers of SA voters could opt to stay at home rather than vote, as the perception of the political class as an ignoble bunch of self-absorbed toddlers, pedestrian in their thinking and ruled by vanity, is entrenched.
While the GNU polled exceptionally well at its inception, Afrobarometer noted a decline in support for it at the height of tension over the national budget. Unless both parties get off their current track, the road to the next election will mark yet another half decade of “wasted years” as governance stumbles amid coalition battles.
The ANC took a decision at its national executive committee at the weekend to expand the GNU to include other parties — mainly those competing directly with the DA, including ActionSA and the National Coloured Congress. This was in response to a string of what the ANC perceives as missteps by the DA — including the budget impasse, and its ultimatum over firing corruption-accused ANC minister Thembi Simelane and the ethically dubious higher education minister Nobuhle Nkabane.
The ANC also believes the DA influenced US sentiment towards SA, amid allegations that DA MP Emma Powell badmouthed the ANC in her US jaunts, at the prompting of a dubious SA-born businessman based in that country, Andre Pienaar, as reported by News24’s Carol Paton this week.
The DA is boycotting the national dialogue and has doubled down on its opposition to broad-based BEE. The US, SA’s third-largest trading partner, has imposed a 30% tariff on all SA goods it imports, with BEE among the reasons for the move.
The DA has a list of complaints just as long: the ANC’s disregard for the GNU statement of intent, the document anchoring the coalition; the lack of urgency by the ANC in finalising the dispute resolution mechanism for GNU partners; its attempt to push through the initial budget using parties outside the GNU instead of finding common ground with its partners; and the axing of DA deputy minister Andrew Whitfield over his failure to secure approval to travel to the US on party business earlier this year — while retaining corruption-accused ANC ministers.
Succession
Complicating matters further is that both parties are at a point in their political calendars when succession looms large over internal debates — who leads next is nearly dominating politics in the ANC, and DA leader John Steenhuisen is also coming under increasing scrutiny in his party over his leadership as the DA heads to an elective congress next year.
Now the parties are heading for another “showdown” as both seek to violate the statement of intent they agreed to. The DA’s boycotting of the national dialogue violates the statement of intent, as does the ANC’s move to expand the GNU, unless it negotiates this with all current signatories to it.
The ANC is likely to use its NEC resolution on GNU expansion as a negotiating tool in an attempt to get the DA back into line on the national dialogue. That the ANC refuses to kick the DA out of the GNU, fearing a backlash from markets and investors, and that the DA refuses to walk away, is another infuriating trait in the arrangement.
What is needed is a true reset of the relationship and for both parties to put aside their partisan interests as SA heads for economic crisis amid the stinging US tariffs, which kick in effectively on Friday. This may be asking too much of parties that are long accustomed to putting their own interests ahead of those of citizens.
• Marrian is Business Day editor-at-large.
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