Some opposition parties prefer to remain on the opposition bench as they flatly rejected the ANC’s suggestion to invite them into the Government of National Unity (GNU).

The uMkhonto weSizwe Party (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.  

MKP 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 request for comment, announced in a statement released on August 6, that its 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 this GNU platform for narrow partisan ends. 

When asked if the MKP was considering ANC’s suggestion, Ndhlela said: “Do you see us being mad?” 

“We cannot join the racists,” he said. 

He did not think that the ANC would dare to invite the MKP to join the GNU. 

“Do you think we would join Steenhuisen and Helen Zille, who have told them (ANC) categorically that they would never be 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.

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.

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 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.

He was emphatic that his party would never join the GNU. 

“We cannot have a conversation with the ANC while it is part of the GNU; we cannot have a conversation with the ANC while Ramaphosa is still the president. 

“We are willing to sit across the table with them and listen to them. Those are the natural key conditions. Then they will be worthy of an ear,” 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 blotted 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.

He said he was happy that the ANC had not invited his party to the GNU, as it had already been calling for the trimming of the Cabinet.

“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.

 He said the GNU would take away ActionSA’s independence. 

“They (ANC) want us to shield them in their infighting with the DA. 

“Let them continue fighting with the DA and leave us alone as an effective constructive opposition,” said Mashaba. 

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

“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 on Tuesday morning 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 because the mere fact that almost all parties, except the MKP, participated in the election of the president and speaker, they endorsed the concept of the new arrangement, which was the GNU,” he said.

bongani.hans@inl.co.za

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