Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
The process of finalising an agreement between the ANC and the Democratic Alliance (DA) on which cabinet portfolios in the government of national unity President Cyril Ramaphosa allocates to the latter is going down to the wire.
“It is crunch time,” a well-placed source said on Thursday, while talks were under way to resolve the latest impasse over the ANC’s change of heart on offering the DA the ministry of trade and industry. That offer was revised this week to tourism. “If we can get them to agree to this, then the president can proceed and announce his cabinet,” the source said.
Although the DA has suggested it could still walk away, the ANC did not believe this was a real threat, reasoning that the party’s donors would not allow it to do so. But neither can the ANC scupper the two parties’ historic agreement to inhabit the same coalition by painting the DA — and itself — into a corner.
Ramaphosa’s strongest allies in the party have reiterated that there is no viable alternative because of the damage working with uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party would wreak — both nationally and within the party.
“There are already sleeper cells of the MK among us. Bringing the party into government would embolden them, it would take us back to where we were and renewal would be a dead letter,” the source said.
In the past week’s to and fro, the president offered the DA four deputy ministries and six full ministries — home affairs, basic education, public works, communications, forestry, fisheries and the environment, plus trade and industry.
The deputy ministers Ramaphosa proposed were finance, energy and electricity, small business development and another, which was yet to be decided.
In a letter to Ramaphosa on Monday, DA leader John Steenhuisen thanked the president for a serious offer “in terms of the quality of the portfolios”, and said he believed it brought a deal within reach.
But the DA was still not happy with numbers placed on the table, neither in terms of the ministries nor the deputy ministries. Steenhuisen asked the president to increase the offer to nine ministries.
“In terms of the quantum of portfolios, there remains concern within our structures that the DA is sacrificing from our proportional allocation more than the ANC.”
Steenhuisen then returned to the argument of proportional representation in the executive, a sticking point that nearly derailed the statement of intent to go into coalition that was signed in the nick of time on 14 June, the day of the first National Assembly sitting.
The parties settled on mutually acceptable phrasing in clause 16 of that document, allowing the election of the president and the presiding officers of the chamber to proceed with consensus among themselves on the candidates. But with that done, the horse-trading as to how this translates into practical reality began.
The chair of the DA’s federal executive, Helen Zille, wrote to Ramaphosa and demanded a dozen cabinet portfolios. In the letter, which was leaked to the media, Zille said it was “only fair and reasonable” for the DA to be represented across all cabinet clusters. This would include the ministries of mineral resources and energy, transport, and trade and industry.
Zille said her party also sought to have its own preferred candidates as deputy ministers in the same ministries where it would have ministers, except in the finance ministry, where the DA wanted to have one of its own as a deputy minister to Enoch Godongwana.
She added a further request — which the ANC will not countenance — that where DA ministers were appointed, existing directors general were shown the door on the grounds that the incumbents may not work well with the incoming DA officials.
It drew an angry response from the ANC, which accused the DA of leaking the letter and making “outrageous demands for specific cabinet positions. Negotiating by leaking demands to the media is an act of bad faith, and this practice will not help any party’s cause.”
Ramaphosa and Steenhuisen then met on Monday to resolve the crisis. Both camps said progress was made in their talks. The ANC’s best offer was six cabinet posts, which insiders say reflects its reading of the clause 16 injunctive for the executive to be broadly reflective of voter support for parties within the coalition.
The DA has done the sums by a different formula and believes its fair share of ministries is bigger. Its critics say this is in part because it ignores the fact that more parties have joined the unity project in the past fortnight.
“On a pure proportional basis, out of a cabinet of 30, the DA’s share of support within the GNU translates to nine positions rather than the six that are currently on the table,” Steenhuisen wrote on Monday.
“Similarly, we cannot see the rationale for reducing the number of DA deputy ministries to only four. Logic would dictate that this quantum would be the same, or close to, the number of cabinet portfolios.”
At the time of going to print, the ANC was not prepared to up its offer on the number of ministries.
Ramaphosa responded to Steenhuisen’s letter thus: “I believe the DA has jeopardised the founda- tion of setting up a government of national unity by moving the goal- posts in your letter.” He was taken aback that it wanted at least eight cabinet posts, and recalled that he had found Zille’s letter “offensive”.
But sources said the biggest sticking point was the trade and industry portfolio, because tourism was seen as a minor ministry in comparison.
The ANC’s position was that both were in the economics cluster, hence the swop should be acceptable to the DA because it had placed a fine point on being represented across clusters.
Sources suggested the U-turn came after concerns were raised that the DA would not place sufficient emphasis on the public interest and labour considerations that should come into play before competition tribunals, but prioritise commerce because of its liberal ideology.
“Do they have enough people of the calibre, of the experience to fill these posts? They have lost some of that in recent years, and the president must appoint a capable cabinet,” one said.
As for Zille’s demand that the DA be allowed to appoint directors general in its portfolios, the ANC deems it preposterous. “Really, they are asking for cadre deployment, which they claim to oppose.”
In his letter to Steenhuisen, Ramaphosa said that he would “prefer not to deal further with the legally incompetent proposals to unilaterally redetermine contractual arrangements of directors general”.
He warned that he saw the task of setting up government as “quite urgent as we cannot continue with this paralysis. I intend to conclude all negotiations and consultations this week.”
Observers say the ANC’s hand has been strengthened and the DA’s bargaining power diluted by the inclusion of more coalition partners. There are now 10.
Two of the newcomers — Rise Mzansi and the United Democratic Movement — have said they made no demands for cabinet posts but the mere presence of more partners shrinks the percentage of voter support the DA can claim to hold among partners.
“The DA is driving a hard bargain, and it is understandable that there will be push-back from within the ANC,” a source in the GNU grouping said.
The negotiating has given some insight into potential restructuring of cabinet portfolios, which has been expected for some time.
The offer of the position of deputy minister of the energy and electricity portfolio suggests that Ramaphosa plans to split mineral resources from energy.
It has also delayed the announcement by Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi of the government of provincial unity, which will run the province for the next five years.
Lesufi said on Thursday that he was ready to do so but was awaiting the “go ahead” from the ANC nationally once that process was concluded.
While the country awaits the outcome of the negotiations, NGOs on Thursday made a public call for proposed national dialogue at a briefing convened by the Thabo Mbeki Foundation.
The idea of a national dialogue has been put forward by the former president — and Ramaphosa — in an attempt to help the country deal with the changed political circumstances.
Speaking at the event, Nkosinathi Biko, of the Steve Biko Foundation, said it was “concerning” that much of the discussion among the parties was focused on positions, even from those who had opposed cadre deployment.
Biko said what they hoped to achieve with the national dialogue is to come up with areas of priority in defining how South Africans wished to be governed.
“The agenda of what it is that must be done for this country has not quite landed from those that have just been given a mandate,” he said.