Hope Ntanzi|Published
President Cyril Ramaphosa has rejected calls to reconsider the DA's participation in the Government of National Unity (GNU), saying the reasons for forming the coalition remain valid despite tensions over the ANC’s court battle to reinstate 181 election candidates.
Speaking on the sidelines of an ANC campaign event in Khayelitsha, Western Cape, on Sunday, Ramaphosa said the November 4 local government elections would not determine the future of the national coalition.
“The elections that we are now embarking upon, that are going to be held, are at local government level. The government of national unity is at national level,” he said.
“And we got into the government of national unity for a number of reasons. And those reasons still hold and we continue to work together.”
His comments follow ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula’s call last Thursday for the party to review the DA’s participation in the GNU after the opposition party opposed the ANC’s successful Constitutional Court application to reinstate 181 candidates excluded from the municipal elections.
Mbalula argued that the DA’s position in the court case raised questions about its commitment to the principles underpinning the coalition’s founding statement of intent.
He said the agreement required GNU partners to promote the country’s constitutional framework and questioned how the DA’s opposition to the ANC’s application aligned with that commitment.
“The founding statement of intent of government of national unity binds every partner to promote the constitutional framework of this Republic,” Mbalula said on Thursday.
“To come to the Constitutional Court to argue against enfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of South Africans does not sit easily beside that understanding.”
The Constitutional Court ruled in the ANC’s favour, directing the Electoral Commission of South Africa to include the 181 candidates on the ballot papers after the dispute over the party’s candidate nomination process.
Ramaphosa says parties can work together despite differences
Asked whether reviewing the DA’s role was the ANC’s formal position, Ramaphosa said the parties had found a way to govern together despite their differences.
“You must remember that we are different parties, different parties with different policies, different ideologies, different histories. And we are in the main contestants. That's what we need to realise. But we found a way of being able to work together,” he said.
Ramaphosa also drew a comparison with the government of national unity formed in 1994, when former political opponents worked together during the transition to democracy.
“When our country embarked on the democracy route in 1994, we also had a government of national unity where we worked together with our erstwhile enemies,” he said.
That arrangement had been formed to respond to the circumstances of the time, just as the current coalition had been established for specific reasons.
“So the issue that you are raising does not arise,” Ramaphosa said, responding to whether the DA’s participation in the GNU would be formally reviewed.
He also dismissed the need to focus on the DA’s actions, saying: “What the DA does is their own moments of fancy, and we will not focus on things like that.”
ANC wants outright victories in municipalities
Ramaphosa said the ANC would focus on winning outright majorities in municipalities rather than speculating about the impact of the local government election results on the national coalition.
He acknowledged that coalition arrangements had become common in local government, with coalitions governing nearly all metropolitan municipalities and many other councils.
“The ANC is working for an outright victory in all the municipalities.
''We've run municipalities on our own in the past, and we've seen great progress, and we would like to once again be given the mandate to be able to transform the lives of our people by being fully, fully entrusted with the mandate to run municipalities,” he said.
Ramaphosa said voters would decide who should govern their municipalities on November 4, while the GNU would continue to operate at national level.
He added that the election results could lead to political realignments or outright victories in individual municipalities, but the national coalition was a separate arrangement.
hope.ntanzi@iol.co.za
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