There comes a time when, while listening to someone, you become aware that they're talking utter nonsense. After months of trying to get the GNU to run like a gazelle, it continually suffers breakdowns like a fruit seller's bakkie. The blame for this sits entirely with the ANC. They had a choice in 2024: form a minority government and seek support on an issue-by-issue basis or form a coalition-type government.
They chose to form a government of national unity. From that moment onwards, they no longer had the sole right to make decisions. They now had other partners in government that they had to consult about their decisions.
To hear ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula saying, "Those who agree on the way forward will then have to craft a statement of agreement", is utter nonsense. The GNU have an agreement. It's called a Statement of Intent. And however imperfect it may be, it is the current basis for the functioning of the GNU.
It, therefore, must be respected. If you've read the Statement of Intent, you'll soon see its woeful inadequacies. The ANC engages the GNU decision-making mechanisms as if it's a senior party in a minority government and can make decisions on an issue-by-issue basis, with the support of any party in parliament. The DA is correct in objecting to this approach. The ANC should be loyal to its GNU partners and seek consensus inside the GNU. The moment it steps outside the GNU for votes that it cannot get inside the GNU, the GNU ceases to exist.
The unnerving awareness among political parties is the fact that the ANC, DA and the other parties know that the GNU is here to stay. The ANC knows that the DA is its much-needed partner in providing sense-making leadership and business confidence to investors.
The DA and ANC are centrist parties, pulled into opposite directions by nationalist factions within their ranks. If they split up, it would be like the breakup between PW Botha and Andries Treurnicht, which led to the formation of the Conservative Party in 1987. It was the beginning of the end for the NP. The current GNU can’t afford a breakup. It will be the moment the lights get switched off in South Africa.
The second issue is that their in-house fighting is taking their eyes off the massive global hammering South Africa is getting from the US. It currently allows AfriForum to be our de facto Department of International Relations.
That conservative cohort's emissaries are dominating global news, and the government is not challenging it. There is enough bad news about South Africa to fill foreign media spaces. Why does the GNU not do something about serving better news about South Africa to the world?
I would task a team of elders led by Kgalema Motlanthe, Mathews Phosa, Helen Zille and Wilmot James to invite wise counsel – business leaders, judges, academics – along with the other political leaders, into a room to write up the principles of governance by which the GNU should conduct itself and make decisions.
The citizens of South Africa cannot afford to have the GNU splutter to shaky stop-starts every time major decisions must be made. In the past, we have spoken much about South Africa becoming a failed state. We are, however, at risk of South Africa becoming a high-risk, unstable government.
If the DA and ANC can find common ground to look beyond the issues that divide them and see the increasingly perilous position of our people and our dismal global standing, we will survive this two-fold crisis. And I would be remiss not to say that a VAT hike should be the last consideration for a country with our poverty levels. Here, the DA is right. Cut costs and expand the tax net; don't increase the tax rate.
Cape Argus