As the ANC gears up to press the reset button, the party’s secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has confirmed that a meeting has been scheduled with its government of national unity (GNU) partners to tweak the rules of engagement.
Speaking at a media briefing at their
Luthuli House headquarters in Johannesburg on Wednesday, Mbalula underscored the need to avert public clashes like the fallout over the recent fiscal framework debacle in Parliament.
The upcoming discussions will tackle key issues, including the conduct of ministers and the effectiveness of the clearing house mechanism, a dispute resolution committee within the GNU.
"We will be meeting as the GNU to reset the button. How should we work, and how do we want to arrange it? These shenanigans have been happening where ministers are doing as they wish in the GNU, others are ducking out of the country, going to the United States, and all of that. South Africans are looking at the executive. They don't look at political parties," said Mbalula.
The briefing took place shortly after Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana briefed the nation on processes expected to unfold after the scrapping of the 0.5 percentage point VAT increase.
Godongwana will now, for the third time, table a Budget on 21 May.
Mbalula said it's going to be a tough road ahead for the GNU.
"We are going to have a meeting of the GNU where we are going to discuss how we want to work going forward. We've got a clearing house. We are sitting here, a minister is taken to court on a policy matter by a partner in the GNU. We need to look at that clearing house. Is it working? How do we deal with such issues?"
Mbalula said the reset was aimed at addressing the conduct of political parties in the political arrangement and not in the government.
"We need to relook issues [being flagged] and address a lot of issues going forward so that we avoid unnecessarily clashing and do the right thing."
He echoed sentiments shared by DA leader John Steenhuisen, who last week said the GNU needed to find mechanisms to contain disputes.
Mbalula maintained that no one was forced to stay in the
GNU marriage and that the DA, if not happy, could walk away.
On the Budget, Mbalula said those claiming victory in the scrapping of the VAT increase were being disingenuous.
He said:
This outcome is not a legal victory for anybody, but the decisive political resolution rooted in consultation, maturity, and the guiding principles of the Freedom Charter.
Mbalula was referring to the now-withdrawn DA and EFF court challenge in the Western Cape High Court over the proposed VAT increase.
He said government work must be shaped not by courtrooms and media spectacle, but through democratic consultation and constructive consensus building.
"The political decision to reverse the VAT increase was reached after substantive engagement between the ANC and 10 other parties in Parliament, all of whom demonstrated discipline, focus, and patriotic clarity," he added.
On calls for Godongwana to resign, Mbalula said ministers must commit a major transgression for them to resign. For the ANC, the calls for Godongwana to go were completely irrational, he said.
According to Mbalula, what did the minister of finance commit, except the fact that the proposals he brought to the fore were disputed, particularly around the VAT increase?
He said South Africa should avoid a "weekend special" situation at all costs.
Mbalula was referring to former president Jacob Zuma's 2015 decision to replace former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene with the then-little-known Des van Rooyen, only to reshuffle him days later.
Asked why the ANC does not divorce the DA, Mbalula said the ANC was not in a hurry to dismiss people in the GNU, nor was the party intimidated by its presence.
Mbalula said that even if a decision was taken to replace the DA, it does not mean the replacements will be allies of the ANC.
"We don't have a marriage with anyone. We don't have a marriage with the DA or any other political party. That is why anytime if they want to walk away, they can. The DA can walk away, any political party in the GNU can, and then we will address the question of what happens when they have left. Do we lock the doors?"
Mbalula said the DA was grappling with being in government and still wanting to be the opposition.
"They are finding it difficult to negotiate the two. That's what they are doing as a political party, and all the time, the DA is opposed to something, it represents their colours, their ideology, it's who they are."
Mbalula also took a swipe at EFF leader Julius Malema's "flip-flopping", saying he was willing to work with the ANC provided it elbowed out the DA and FF Plus in the GNU, only for the EFF to vote with the DA against the fiscal framework.
If the DA walks away, he said the party was willing to work with all political parties.
"We'll continue to talk with all parties, including the DA. We are not threatened by the DA shenanigans."
Mbalula said the ANC was also aware that a motion of no confidence could be tabled against
President Cyril Ramaphosa in Parliament.
He was referring to Malema's utterance on Tuesday, in which he warned that if the ANC continued on its current trajectory, Steenhuisen could one day be the president.
"We'll deal with it when it happens. It's possible that anything of that sort can happen, but don't think that we are folding our arms and we are not alert to that. We are very much awake to it. That's why I responded to the leader of the EFF and I said, 'You saying motion of no confidence, but you didn't vote for the president. We defeated you with your 44 votes. Cyril Ramaphosa got 283 votes."
Mbalula said it was the nature of South Africa's political fabric that somebody will raise a motion of no confidence.
This was also true in coalition governments.
Weighing in on the Budget, Zuko Godlimpi, the ANC chair of the subcommittee on economic transformation, said it was politically risky to think that legislation can only be passed or amended through court declarations.
"That's the point that the DA sometimes misses. The DA has committed to this idea that the only way there could be progress [is that] it must go to court," said Godlimpi.
ANC chief whip in Parliament
Mdumiseni Ntuli added it was unfortunate that what was otherwise one of the best budgets in the country in a long time could not be discussed rationally because of the contentious VAT matter.
"If you look at that Budget in its totality, I would still argue that it had the potential to take our country in the right direction, but the VAT clouded the debate."
Ntuli said the DA opportunistically exploited the issue of the VAT increase.
"Honest South Africans will know that the genuine concern of the DA has not been the VAT. The VAT was a scapegoat and unfortunately, because it's a contentious issue, they had to use it in order to reinsert themselves into a positive national conversation about the Budget, about the ANC walking away from the poor and all of that," said Ntuli.
