EXPANSION

Some opposition parties prefer to remain on the opposition bench and have chosen to swat away the ANC’s invitation into the Government of National Unity (GNU).

One such party was The uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP).

The Jacob Zuma-led MKP was unwilling to be part of the Cabinet that involved the DA and President Cyril Ramaphosa. 

However, the MKP said it was willing to hold discussions with the EFF and the ANC, without Ramaphosa’s involvement, for the formation of the pro-black government.  

The MKP’s national spokesperson, Nhlamulo Ndhlela, said this in reaction to the ANC’s suggestion of adding more parties to the GNU. 

The ANC, whose spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri is yet to respond to a request for comment, announced in a statement released on August 6, that the party’s National Executive Committee’s ordinary meeting held between August 1 and 4 resolved to engage with its current GNU partners to broaden participation, “strengthen the functioning of the GNU, and give full effect to the Statement of Intent”.

However, the ANC cautioned that it would not allow opportunistic forces, which it did not name, to manipulate the GNU platform for narrow partisan ends. 

When asked if the MKP was considering ANC’s suggestion, Ndhlela said: “We cannot join the racists,” he said. 

“Do you think we would join Steenhuisen and Helen Zille, who have told them (the ANC) categorically that they would never be in a GNU with MKP and EFF? So, where would they begin to bring us in?” he asked. 

He said his party was not interested in joining the GNU.

While being part of the GNU, the DA has strongly opposed several recently passed policies, such as the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act (BELA)’s language and school admission clauses, the National Health Insurance Act, and the Land Expropriation Act.

Ndhlela said that while the DA was part of the government, it was also playing the opposition role in Parliament and Cabinet. 

He suggested that predominantly black parties should exit form the government.

“We need the ANC, without Ramaphosa, the EFF, and MKP to sit and talk because if you look at the policy perspective, we are all aligned in terms of what we want for black people,” said Ndhlela.

The MKP placed the condition that it should have an upper hand in the government. 

“On top of that, there is no way that the president of the country, if there were to be those kinds of conversations, would come from the ANC, never, it cannot be. 

“Not with the rot that is there. The president of the country must come from the MKP in those discussions, if they were to happen. 

“There is no way that the ANC in its current state can lead the country as it has lost public trust,” said Ndhlela.

ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba said the ANC was trying to neutralise the opposition bench and that there was no significant role that his party would play in the already bloated Cabinet. 

He said ActionSA first rejected the ANC’s invitation into the GNU after the general elections and during the heated debate over Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s attempt to increase VAT.

“We said to the ANC that as long as they got 70% representation in the GNU, they don’t need us.

“We don’t want to be neutralised because (by joining the GNU) we will be compromising ourselves as we want to remain a constructive opposition in parliament,” he said.

The DA and Freedom Front Plus were opposed to the expansion of the GNU. 

DA leader John Steenhuisen, the Agriculture minister, said this week that he did not believe expansion of the parties in the GNU would take the country forward.

“I think it is going to complicate things even further, (as) we already have 10 parties in the GNU,” said Steenhuisen.

However, the United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa, the Defence and Military Veterans deputy minister, told the media yesterday that his party supported the expansion. 

“There was no winner in the elections; the people mandated all political parties to find a way to run South Africa, hence the GNU today.

“It meant that all parties in Parliament are eligible to participate if they want to. So there is nothing wrong with expansion,” he said.

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