POLITICS
Tough negotiations lie ahead for the ANC and the
DA, but they are in a better place than they were a week ago, says DA leader
John Steenhuisen.
Steenhuisen led a DA delegation that met with the ANC yesterday afternoon in Johannesburg to talk about the deadlock in negotiations over the first budget presented by the government of national unity (
GNU).
The DA and the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) refused to support the budget's fiscal framework, and the ANC eventually had to rely on Herman Mashaba's ActionSA and Mmusi Maimane's Build One SA to get it approved.
READ: 'DA committed to GNU, but wants genuine power-sharing' – Steenhuisen
City Press' sister publication Rapport has learnt that a reconfiguration of the GNU was not discussed at yesterday's meeting between the ANC and the DA, even though Deputy President Paul Mashatile of the ANC still insisted on it on Thursday.
The ANC did discuss the reconfiguration of the GNU with the EFF on Friday, but the EFF made it clear to the ANC that the red berets would only join the GNU if the DA and the FF+ were no longer part of it.
Steenhuisen did not want to elaborate on what was discussed at the meeting, which lasted for almost three hours, but said the meeting was "very constructive, calm and rational".
He said:
Both delegations will now report to their parties' top structures, and then negotiations will resume.
The DA's federal executive committee meets tomorrow. At the time of publication, it was not known when the ANC's national working committee would meet again.
The ANC's delegation consisted of secretary-general Fikile Mbalula; treasurer-general Gwen Ramokgopa; party chair and Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe; party deputy secretary and Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Minister Maropene Ramokgopa; Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau; and Deputy Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Andries Nel.
The DA's delegation consisted of party leader and Agriculture Minister Steenhuisen; party federal council chair Helen Zille; Western Cape Agriculture, Economic Development and Tourism MEC Ivan Meyer; deputy speaker Annelie Lotriet; Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber; deputy federal council chair Thomas Walters; and second Deputy Finance Minister Ashor Sarupen.
READ: 'Vote for the budget, or what’s the point of being in government?': Mashatile calls out DA ministers
According to Steenhuisen, the DA told the ANC that it still could not support the VAT increase of 50 basis points this year and a further 50 basis points next year.
However, the ANC has also softened its own position on this in the past week and said the party would honour its promise to ActionSA to help Treasury look for other sources of income instead of a VAT increase.
Steenhuisen said the DA's last draft agreement, which they sent to the ANC on 2 April, would still form the basis of the party's future negotiations.
In this document, the DA makes several concessions to the ANC.
For example, the DA does away with its insistence that the deputy ministers of finance (the ANC's David Masondo and the DA's Sarupen) should be the chairpersons of Operation Vulindlela. It concedes to a proposal from the ANC that the minister in the presidency (the ANC's Khumbudzo Ntshavheni) and the minister of finance (the ANC's Enoch Godongwana) lead Operation Vulindlela, but that the deputy ministers of finance only help implement it.
It also concedes to an ANC requirement that the department of trade, industry and competition can launch a "comprehensive regulatory review" together with a team from Treasury.
The document also makes no mention of concessions, as the DA had previously requested, on the Expropriation Act or National Health Insurance Bill.
The DA makes a concession for a VAT increase of 50 basis points in the document, but only for one year.
According to the document, the DA also demands, among other things:
- A spending review that should reprioritise between R50 billion and R100 billion in spending in the national and provincial governments;
- That an undertaking be given to ease the tax burden within two years;
- That Solly Malatsi, the DA's minister of communications and digital technology, should issue a policy directive for equity alternatives in the information and communication technology sector to enable greater foreign investment in this sector;
- That Treasury review the Public Procurement Act to ensure that preferential procurement policies do not increase the cost of goods and services for government; and
- That a strategy for long-term economic growth is developed that takes into account input from all GNU partners.
In the document, the DA also asks the ANC to make compromises to form a "strategic partnership".
"We accept that the ANC has almost twice as much support as the DA, and therefore we do not expect a disproportionate amount of power, but we do expect our fair share and we are willing to enter into a partnership in which both parties work together to take South Africa forward," the document states.
Last night, Mbalula described the meeting with the DA as "constructive".
"South Africa must come first. As leaders, we owe it to the people of this country – black and white, young and old – to rise above narrow political interests and work together in the spirit of unity and shared progress. The ANC will continue to engage with all GNU partners, civil society and other stakeholders in pursuit of a stable, inclusive and effective government that places the interests of South Africans at the heart of all its decisions."
Meanwhile, yesterday, Floyd Shivambu, secretary-general of the Umkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP), said that they also approached the ANC to talk about the budget. However, according to Shivambu, the MKP indicated that it did not want to be used as the ANC's bait in a fight between the ANC and the DA.
The ANC and the FF+ are scheduled to meet today. FF+ chief whip Corné Mulder emphasised this past week that his party would also demand that the ANC be willing to share power.
