By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The inclusion of the Patriotic Alliance (PA) as part of the government of national unity (GNU) has caused a row between the partners, following the 2024 general election in which no party won a majority.
DA federal Council Chair Helen Zille has questioned the PA’s inclusion in the GNU, without discussion or agreement among the partners.
Zille said GNU partners should be consulted about the opening up of the structure set to govern South Africa.
She said Clause 17 of the GNU agreement stated that appointments to the executive should be done in consultation “with the leaders of the respective parties of the members considered for appointment.”
“So, you can’t just let anybody come in without consulting with us,” said Zille.
In a statement issued on Wednesday morning, the PA said that it was the African National Congress (ANC) prerogative to decide who joins the pact.
“It was and remains the ANC’s decision to invite all parties to join its GNU. The DA decided to be one of those parties, but Helen Zille now wants to act as though the DA has the right to be the gatekeeper for the ANC.
“As the PA, we would be lying if we say we are shocked. We have been victims of such short-sighted vindictiveness at the hands of Zille and the DA more times than we can count. Her style of negotiation is to humiliate instead of finding consensus. It must always be her way or the highway,” the statement reads.
The party has further stated that it is willing to bury the hatchet with the DA and put South Africa first.
“We as the PA will now await the next move of the ANC with interest. We thought the GNU was about putting party differences aside and working together for the good of South Africa and its citizens. Even the DA leader in his first speech in Parliament emphasised this. Perhaps we are the ones with dementia, though, and instead it is about Helen Zille thinking she is in charge of the new government of national unity, “it reads.
The DA and PA have had a turbulent relationship since their fallout in the City of Johannesburg.
DA chief whip Siviwe Gwarube said her party anticipated the need for cool heads and mature conversations around the table. “That is why we needed a founding document with founding principles that will guide how this government will work. Now it is a matter of where we are, but there is no trouble at all,” Gwarube said.
“South Africans should be encouraged, in fact, that we have conversation early on instead of when the government is formed and already steaming on with delivery,” she said.
Gwarube also said there were a number of steps that allowed parties in the GNU to seek conflict resolution.
“This has not even escalated to that point. This is a point that really required clarification among the partners,” she said, adding that while the DA had no veto power, there needed to be sufficient consensus on who would be in the GNU.
African National Congress (ANC) parliamentary chief whip Mdumiseni Ntuli said there had been confusion about what the 60% threshold meant and represented.
He said the threshold was not a partnership between the DA and the ANC, but 60% of parties represented in the GNU.
“It does not mean the two of us can meet and make decisions at the exclusion of others. That is not how ANC orientation is about the GNU,” Ntuli said.
He said they saw each other as equal partners and there was no big brother. “This thing that the DA wanted to be consulted before others can be invited to join GNU is a strange way of thinking and it is a betrayal of what this GNU principles actually say,” said Ntuli.
Meanwhile, the Freedom Front Plus’ Pieter Groenewald confirmed that the party has submitted a proposal to join the GNU.
“We are in the process of working together at a national level. We have put forward our proposal to the ANC and await a response either today or tomorrow.
“What is important to the FF+ is that we have good governance in SA and it is the first time we do not have a governing party, so they will have to be accountable to Parliament and it cannot be misused by the majority to be a rubber stamp,” he reiterated.
The ANC and FF+ have already joined forces in the Northern Cape to install Zamani Saul as the premier.
However, Groenewald mentioned that the party declined the opportunity to govern alongside the ANC in the province.
Groenewald said, its co-governing agreement with the ANC includes the protection of Orania and other similar communities in the Northern Cape.
Orania is an Afrikaner nationalist town in the province. It is located along the Orange River in the Karoo region.