By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) announced it will not leave the Government of National Unity (GNU), despite feeling hard-done-by over the firing of one of its deputy ministers.
This announcement comes after the expiry of its 48-hour ultimatum to President Cyril Ramaphosa to fire three of his Cabinet members immediately, like he sacked DA’s Andrew Whitfield as the deputy minister of Trade, Industry and Competition.
The three ministers are Human Settlements Minister Thembi Simelane, Higher Education and Training Minister Nobuhle Nkabane and Member of National Assembly David Mahlobo.
The 48 hours expired on Saturday.
DA leader John Steenhuisen, DA Federal Chairperson Dr Ivan Meyer, and Federal Council Chairperson Helen Zille briefed the media in Cape Town.
Steenhuisen threw the ball back into Ramaphosa’s court, saying it was up to the ANC whether they wanted to kick the DA out of the national coalition.
“The ball is in the President’s court and the ANC’s court – if they want to take a strong stance against us and want to stop us [from] standing against corruption, well, they must fire us from the Government of National Unity,” he said.
The party said it won’t participate in the upcoming National Dialogue, meant to determine policy and a single vision for the country.
Steenhuisen said a National Dialogue would be meaningless if the ANC couldn’t engage adequately with its coalition partners. He said the party would now actively lobby against it.
In addition to mobilising against the National Dialogue, Steenhuisen said the DA would also be voting against the individual budget votes for Simelane and Nkabane’s departments. “
A second, critically important step that the DA is taking, is to vote against upcoming departmental budget votes for the departments headed by Simelane, Nkabane, and other corruption accused ANC ministers.
“We will keep voting against those departmental votes until those ministers are removed.
“In this way, the DA will strike the appropriate balance by allowing the broader GNU budget process to proceed to ensure the stability of the country, while forcing the ANC to act against specific ministers.
“If the ANC wants our support for those departmental budgets, they must replace the incumbent ministers with alternatives that meet the very standard the President has set for himself through Whitfield’s axing,” said Steenhuisen.
He said that the ministers in those portfolios would need to source other ways of getting their budgets passed in Parliament.
“We won’t be voting against the globular budget and, I think, that is a result of the fact that we want to ensure that delivery proceeds for the people of South Africa. But those individual budget votes where ministers are severely compromised and sitting at the top of those departments, will obviously have to find other ways to get those budgets passed,” he said.
Steenhuisen added that the party’s Federal Executive had also considered tabling a motion of no confidence in Ramaphosa. However, he said the DA understood the concerns of many South Africans if Ramaphosa were removed as President.
“While the FedEx decided not to table a Motion of No Confidence at this stage, it is clear that the DA is in the process of losing confidence in his ability to act as a leader not of the ANC, but of the GNU of which we are the second-largest component, “said Steenhuisen.
“If the ANC fails to course-correct, the FedEx will seriously consider exercising our constitutional prerogative by tabling a motion of no confidence.” He mentioned, on several occasions, that the GNU Statement of Intent had been undermined by Ramaphosa and the ANC.
“I think the intent of the Statement of Intent is correct, but it would be great if that was being honored. It is being repeatedly violated. It says a lot about where we’re at that a year later, we still have a conflict resolution mechanism; that the Clearing House in the GNU has no terms of reference,” he said.
Steenhuisen said that Ramaphosa had not afforded him the opportunity to inform Whitfield himself about what was expected to happen before he received a letter from Ramaphosa alerting him of his removal.
“That is not respectful and that is not right,” he said, suggesting that certain clauses relating to consultation and consensus in the Statement of Intent were violated. “The Statement of Intent needs to be respected in both letter and spirit,” he said.