DA leader John Steenhuisen says the government of national unity (GNU) cannot be “a clearing house” for every problem in SA.
“It is an unfair and unrealistic ask,” Steenhuisen said in an interview with Business Day.
He also shed light on why his party was forced to let go of Tshwane as part of a coalition with the ANC at national level.
“The GNU deal was not linked to provinces. Even the DA in the Western Cape insisted on that when we signed the national deal after elections. The DA’s structures at provincial (and regional level) have to be satisfied enough to sign their own coalition agreements,” Steenhuisen said when asked why he or President Cyril Ramaphosa could not intervene in the dispute that resulted in the ousting of mayor Cilliers Brink by a coalition of parties, including the ANC.
The issue of who governs the Gauteng metros will be central to who does well in the 2026 local government elections, with the ANC having lost support in the province in recent elections.
Political and electoral analyst Wayne Sussman said the ANC or DA would be the biggest winner in the 2026 local government elections.
"[In] Gauteng, I think this arrangement can benefit the ANC and DA. If the ANC turns the metros around and does a good job, then it can benefit the ANC, and if ANC don't do well, the DA will be the biggest beneficiary. Playing both sides — for the ANC and DA — hedging their bets, is a good strategy,” Sussman said.
The ANC taking over the three Gauteng metros the DA governed after the 2021 local government elections is a big blow for a party still grappling with the polarising issues of identity and race, which have resulted in an exodus of black leaders.
The ANC, meanwhile, declined from 50% to 34% during the recent provincial election.
The recent, unceremonious removal of Brink through a motion of no confidence robbed the DA of the opportunity to prove its mettle in the build-up to the 2026 elections.
Sussman said that the sustainability of the GNU was critical for political stability in SA.
“There is a lot of hysteria and fighting on social media, but Ramaphosa knows the GNU has to work for the ANC and [the] country, and I would say the same for [DA federal executive council chair] Helen Zille,” Sussman said.
Steenhuisen said further concrete details on how the ANC and DA would work together in the national interest would be announced early next year after the medium-term development plan (MTDP) was finalised.
He acknowledged that disputes around localisation and National Health Insurance (NHI) were the biggest stumbling blocks to finalising a programme of action.
“We need to get the MTDP absolutely right with maximum consensus on things like localisation. We need evidence-based policy decisions on NHI and localisation. Simply expecting us to rubber stamp existing policies will not get things moving. If you do what you have always done, you cannot expect different results,” Steenhuisen said.
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