President Cyril Ramaphosa, respected for his diplomacy and consensus building, has been exposed in the harshest of lights. The budget delay — a first in the country’s history — reveals a leader struggling to co-govern. And finance minister Enoch Godongwana and his ANC cohorts should have known better.
In the absence of evidence to refute the DA assertion that it was not formally informed, Godongwana and Ramaphosa’s blind adherence to tradition and last-minute negotiations smacks of hubris and mismanagement. The reality is that the ANC is no longer the omnipotent force it was, but rather, part of a diverse political coalition.
The GNU, a ragtag collection of parties including the ANC, DA, IFP and others, is anything but unified. The postponement of the budget due to an unresolved disagreement over a VAT increase, as reported in this newspaper on Wednesday, is Exhibit A in Ramaphosa’s failure to lead. Instead of living up to his image as a consensus-builder in leading the GNU, Ramaphosa finds himself in a sea of discord.
The GNU was never going to be smooth. The ANC and DA, as ringmasters in the hodgepodge set-up, have different agendas and priorities, leading to inevitable friction and occasional fireworks. The chaos is par for the course in coalition politics. And it is necessary. The tension acts as a crucial check, preventing unilateral actions and ensuring that policies are debated. It is the lifeblood of a democracy, a dynamic push-and-pull that guards against autocratic tendencies.
Even so, it is here, in this cacophony of voices, that Ramaphosa’s leadership faltered. A man who once could negotiate on behalf of mining strikers with finesse now appears lost. His and his finance minister’s failure to rally the disparate factions of the government of national unity around the most important fiscal event of the year lays bare the harsh truth: the skills that served him in the boardrooms and negotiating tables of yesteryear are inadequate in the volatile world of coalition politics.
One has to wonder: was it naiveté or hubris that led the ANC to believe it could govern as if it were still the sole ruling party? The ANC’s arrogance in clinging to outdated traditions, such as convening a last-minute cabinet meeting on the day of the budget, speaks volumes. Last-minute consensus with an eclectic mix of ideologies with their own agendas, priorities and vested interests is a myth, a dream at best, and a dangerous delusion at worst. This miscalculation is more than a political faux pas — it’s a dereliction of duty.
The ANC, accustomed to unilateral decision-making, has been rudely awakened to the realities of coalition governance. The coalition partners are not mere appendages to the ANC’s agenda. They are equal stakeholders whose voices must be heard and whose concerns must be addressed well in advance. Gondongwana and his ANC cohorts should have initiated these crucial discussions weeks, if not months, ago. Instead, they opted for a desperate 11th-hour scramble, resulting in a humiliating postponement and an economic plan left in limbo.
Ramaphosa, who has described the ANC tie-up with the DA as a “tactical” move to advance its own agenda, should take a hard look at this episode. It exposes a systemic flaw in the ANC’s approach to coalition governance. The party’s historical dominance has made it ill-prepared for the nuances and complexities of shared power. Respect and courtesy are the bedrock of any successful coalition, yet the ANC’s treatment of its partners has been anything but respectful.
Before this fiasco, the DA has twice threatened to withdraw from the GNU. It felt aggrieved by Ramaphosa’s allocation of cabinet posts, arguing it was handed far fewer than its proportional entitlement based on the election results, and that it went against the spirit of the coalition agreement. Then it drew a red line over the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act, only to cave in later. Worryingly, the ANC response has been a dismissive shrug, essentially telling the DA it does not need it in the coalition set-up. Which is of course not true.
The sooner the ANC realises that it must earn the trust and co-operation of its coalition partners, the better. It is a bitter pill to swallow, but it is necessary for the health of the country and its ailing economy. The budget saga is a wake-up call, a reminder that leadership is as much about consensus as it is about timing, preparation and the ability to adapt.
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