ANC in Parliament cautions GNU members against acting as individual political parties

CAPE TOWN - The African National Congress (ANC) in Parliament has cautioned Government of National Unity (GNU) members of the executive to act as one and not as individual political parties.

The ANC caucus and its chief whip Mdumiseni Ntuli said pursuing party interests in the GNU could go against the constitution.

This week saw members from seven different political parties being sworn in as new members of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Cabinet and executive with some already making early pronouncements.

The ANC caucus and Ntuli issued the first written statement following this week’s swearing-in ceremony in Cape Town.

Ntuli called on the members of the GNU executive to act as one executive led by Ramaphosa as the head of the executive, as defined in Section 83 of the Constitution and not as individual political parties.

He said they’d already “noted some GNU partners seeking to distinguish themselves along party lines in the executive”.

Some Democratic Alliance (DA) ministers wasted no time this week and have already made pronouncements and sketched out their priorities.

Ntuli described this as a “worrying tendency which, if left unchecked, would go against the spirit of the Constitution, which calls for collective accountability of a single executive”.

Ntuli’s warning to the members of the GNU executive follows a similar call by Minister in The Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, that only the Cabinet can approve government policy following a Cabinet lekgotla, and not individual ministers.