GNU at 1: Analysts believe not enough has been done to transcend party lines
The country marks a full year since the establishment of a national coalition dubbed the Government of National Unity 2.0 this week.
FILE: Newly sworn-in Cabinet ministers pose for a photo with Chief Justice Raymond Zondo and President Cyril Ramaphosa on 3 July 2024. Picture: GCIS
JOHANNESBURG - Following months of fighting to keep the national coalition, dubbed the Government of National Unity (GNU), intact, some analysts believe that not enough has been done for the GNU to transcend competitive party lines, which continue to characterise the country's political spectrum.
This week the African National Congress (ANC)-led coalition, which includes the Democratic Alliance (DA) and several other small parties such as the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC), Good, Rise Mzansi, United Democratic Movement (UDM), Al Jama-ah, the Patriotic Alliance (PA) and Freedom Front Plus marks a year in power.
It does so having faced several threats that almost brought it to the brink, with the budget proposal being the most significant in recent months.
ALSO READ:
• GNU parties support 2025 fiscal framework and budget, opposition parties call it anti-poor
• GNU parties come to defence of Godongwana after MK Party bays for his blood
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government consists of 75 ministers and deputies, all representing the different parties within the GNU. This has made it easy to compare the performance of ministers based on which party they represent; however, politics and foreign policy analyst Sanusha Naidu, from the Institute of Global Dialogue, said that this shouldn’t be the measure of how effective the GNU government has been.
"Our reflections have to move beyond which party did well in the GNU, which one didn’t do well," said Naidu.
She said that current analysis framed the internal battles as a zero-sum game, with parties having to be much more competitive, even in highlighting the inadequacies or weaknesses of one party over the other.
"Dynamics and hallmarks of competitive politics isn’t about working together," she said.
Naidu argued that coalition politics, from now going forward, must take into consideration both the domestic and global architecture of which they operate within. This, she said, was a volatile space, which makes understanding and analysing the national coalition much harder.
"Both the domestic and global architecture are in a state of vulnerability, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity," she remarked.
For Naidu, when it comes to context, South Africa’s challenges aren’t unique.
"We’ve seen coalitions and right-wing politics or spectrums of the political landscape shifting continuously in the very same countries that we’ve been told to use as a benchmark of our success… in Europe look at Germany, France, or Netherlands, the government collapsed over there," said Naidu.
Her views on domestic issues, to some degree, tie in with the University of North West’s Professor Kedibone Phago, who is worried about service delivery in the new dispensation.
Naidu said that the material conditions which this coalition was put together were very different from the initial concept, when South Africa had its democratic breakthrough. Oddly enough, she doesn’t seem to argue that the formation in its current iteration was the best route, while Phago defined it as encouraging.
He, however, flagged a series of concerns that gained momentum this past year.
"This holding on of the members of the GNU, were not without challenges, we have seen problems of the BELA Act, the problems that came with the Expropriation Act and how right wing [formations] decided to even ride on these problems, in a way of further causing divisions among GNU members," said Phago.
His take was in relation to two key acts, passed in the previous Parliament that the DA attempted to reverse through their newfound relationship with the ANC, both the BELA and Expropriation Acts, along with the National Health Insurance [NHI] are before the courts.
The DA’s taken both the NHI and Expropriation acts to the courts, while trade union Solidarity and fringe lobby group, AfriForum, are challenging the BELA Act.
READ MORE:
• Analysts say DA's court tactics within GNU an effective way to challenge positions it disagrees with
• Leon believes the tensions between the DA & ANC in the GNU will benefit both parties in some form
• Despite frequent legal challenges against GNU, DA not intending to leave govt anytime soon
This in and of itself has been seen as an anomaly by the University of the Western Cape’s Professor Bheki Mngomezulu, who argued that the DA continues to see itself as an outsider in the GNU, despite having taken up positions in Ramaphosa's executive.
"As the ANC was behaving like it was still the governing party, the DA’s also been behaving like it’s still the opposition party, this is not the case, they are in a coalition with others," he says.
"They have an identity crisis," he added as he explained his view of the DA.
The fiery relationship between the DA and the ANC has led to several public outbursts, with social media and the budget being the most memorable. This has also trickled down to their different caucuses in Parliament, where the ANC’s MPs in rejecting the partnership with the DA, claim the blue party’s MPs have been hostile towards them. This was confirmed to EWN’s Politricking with Tshidi Madia by the ANC’s chief whip, Mdumseni Ntuli, who argued that ANC MPs weren’t shielded from the cold reception as they worked alongside their coalition partners five days a week.
It is understood that relations have improved slightly following talks between the whips of the different organisations.
Phago believes there’s a concerted effort by GNU members to continue working with one another, insisting that the DA daring to leave the coalition leaves the door open for some of its opponents like the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).
UNW's Phago also believes there are positives from the current GNU partnership, but stresses that it hasn’t done enough to address issues affecting South Africans.
"This doesn’t mean South Africans have been taken care of, in terms of service delivery,” he says.
Phago said that South Africans continue to feel vulnerable to criminal elements in the country, with even more concerning views on the performance of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
"There are many, many problems there, even cases some think are obvious, like state capture, we don’t have any meaningful outcomes on those," he said.
The politics and governance professor said that decisive, functional and effective leadership across various sectors and key institutions remained a crucial need for the country.
It's a view that Professor Mngomezulu suggests is how the country’s presidency should also be observed. He told EWN that President Cyril Ramaphosa had not prevailed as a leader.
"In a number of instances, where he’s taken a stance, its been the direct opposite of what he’s promised," Mngomezulu said.
Mngomezulu, who even rejected the idea of a GNU, said that the makeup was incorrect and that the president merely oversees a multi-party coalition, believes the lack of experience in managing the sharing of power is showing.