ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula responded to recent claims by Democratic Alliance (DA) federal council chair Helen Zille, where she stated that there is no government of national unity (GNU) but rather a coalition between the two parties. Mbalula dismissed Zille’s claims, accusing her of being a mouthpiece for the opposition and attempting to create divisions within the unity government. Mbalula made these statements to journalists on Thursday during the ANC’s national executive meeting in Ekurhuleni.
President Cyril Ramaphosa formed the GNU after the ANC did not secure a majority in the general elections on 29th May. The ANC won just over 40% of the national vote, while the DA, the main opposition party, received 21.8%. The unity government includes the ANC, the DA, the Inkatha Freedom Party, Rise Mzansi, Good, Patriotic Alliance, Al Jama-ah, Freedom Front Plus, Pan Africanist Congress, and the United Democratic Movement. Mbalula stated on Thursday that Zille’s remarks were an attempt to dismantle the ANC.
“We are a leading party, the largest one, the biggest expression of the will of the people. We are not going to be engaged in polemics with Zille or whoever wishes,” he said. “Stop being irritated by Zille every time she says she wants to see the ANC dead. It is her job, like all others.”
Zille, in a video circulated on social media from a post-election dialogue hosted by the German Free Democrats-aligned Friedrich Naumann Foundation on Wednesday, claimed that the DA and ANC had entered into a coalition government, not a GNU.
In the video, she is heard saying that Ramaphosa had come up with the notion of a government of national unity which “he thought would be a better way of selling the concept of a coalition to his party”.
“A government of national unity brings all the parties together that would include the EFF [Economic Freedom Fighters] and MK [Umkhonto weSizwe] party, which it did not,” Zille said.
“But it still provided the president with the cover he needed to bring in various smaller parties and claim ‘I’m not in a coalition with the DA’. The truth is that we (the DA and ANC) are actually in a coalition because a coalition means that if a party withdraws from the coalition, the party falls.”
Zille also mentioned that the DA was banking on the disintegration of the ANC and the potential resignation of Ramaphosa as party leader after 2027 to position itself as the largest political party in South Africa and end the ANC’s three-decade dominance.
“The ANC does its polling and it knows that its trump card is Cyril Ramaphosa. If they lose Cyril Ramaphosa they will go down, if they are lucky, to 25% or 20%,” she said. She said the DA also leveraged the rand exchange rate during GNU negotiations to gain the upper hand.
”One of the strongest tools we had in the negotiations was the value of the rand. Whenever things were going well, the rand rose; whenever things went badly, the rand fell,” she said.
On Thursday, Mbalula said if Zille was unsatisfied with the GNU arrangement, she was free to leave, adding that the ANC was not “going to beg” anyone to stay in the agreement. “Even Zille, we are not begging her. If she wants to leave the GNU, she can leave but we have invited everybody to work together and they have agreed and we are working together,” he said.
He stated that the electorate had given the ANC a mandate to find partners to collaborate with and form a government, adding: “So why should we argue? Let’s work for the people.” Mbalula mentioned that the ANC’s focus would be on stabilizing the country and ensuring that the government functions effectively.
“The question that remains is, can the ANC do better with the 40% it received and the leadership it has, in terms of safeguarding power and leading South Africa? The country is stable, that is the reality. Everything is on track, and the government is running,” he said.
The EFF has previously criticized the unity government as a coalition seeking to reverse the progress made in securing the freedom and rights of black people.
