ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula has challenged the DA to withdraw from the Government of National Unity (GNU) following the party’s recent threats to boycott the upcoming National Dialogue.

This confrontation between the two parties follows hot on the heels of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent axing of former deputy minister Andrew Whitfield, who allegedly undertook an unauthorised trip to the United States.

DA leader John Steenhuisen, addressing the media on Saturday slammed Ramaphosa’s decision, claiming it was indicative of President Ramaphosa’s inconsistent approach to governance while also “threatening to destabilise the GNU unless all so-called delinquent ministers are removed from their positions within 48 hours.

However Mbalula who was speaking during the 3rd day of the OR Tambo Regional Conference in the Eastern Cape on Sunday stated that the GNU is not a permanent feature but a temporary partnership among all the coalition parties.

Mbalula stated that the ANC and its President will not be bullied and disrespected by the DA and its leaders who continuously threaten to destabilse the GNU.

“When the Government of National Unity was formed with the ten political parties, it was not a permanent feature. So, we will not allow for our President to be disrespected by his deputy ministers.

“Even Nelson Mandela fired his own wife. My mother Winnie Nomzamo Madikizela Mandela. Mandela took him out of the cabinet.

Thabo Mbeki as president also did the same when he fired Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge.  We can’t then be disrespected by a small boy who is being protected by the DA. We are not in a marriage with the DA but we are in a coalition,” he said.

Mbalula who addressed delegates to one of the party’s biggest regions in the Eastern Cape, the OR Tambo Region- which is one of the most influential ANC regions in the country said that those who had accused the ANC of selling out when it partnered with the DA in the GNU would soon realise that the ANC has an upper hand in the coalition.

“They must know one thing. We are not at the mercy of the DA. We are in this coalition because we respected the outcomes of the elections and the interests of the people of South Africa. That is why we have characterised this as a strategic setback.

“It is not a permanent feature.  The GNU is not a melting pot. We did say that there are ten political parties in the GNU and the DA did not want this. Now, I see why they did not want this as they wanted to squeeze us and put us in a corner, but we turned the tables around and we put them in our own trap. Now they arein a deeper trap,” he added.

Mbalula’s tough stance against the DA has been echoed by ANC spokesperson, Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri who on Saturday said it is the DA and not the ANC that went to the United States to complain about these redress policies and lobby other like-minded right-wing organisations in the U.S.

“It is the Democratic Alliance that went abroad to the United States to complain about these redress policies and lobby other like-minded right-wing organisations in the U.S., not the ANC and mobilised against transformative policies.

“The statement of intent is very clear. It says all the parties that are signatory to the statement will not tamper with redress policies. The DA has been to court I do not know how many times challenging the land expropriation act, the Bela act, the NHI act and the employment equity legislation. Those are but four major transformative legislation. They have also campaigned furiously against the BEE laws.

“It is for South African to figure out who is violating the statement of intent,” Bhengu-Motsiri told the SABC on Saturday.

Efforts to reach both DA spokespeople, Willie Aucamp and Karabo Khakhau were  unsuccessful on Sunday.

siyabonga.sithole@inl.co.za

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