Paul Mashatile said that the issues between ANC Gauteng chair Panyaza Lesufi and the DA's Helen Zille would be resolved at some point. (File photo)
Deputy President Paul Mashatile will convene the first meeting of the cabinet “clearing house” set up to resolve conflicts among the partners in the government of national unity (GNU) on Thursday.
The committee, which Mashatile chairs, will deal with disputes around issues such as the contested clauses of the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act and concerns from the Democratic Alliance (DA) over the National Health Insurance (NHI).
Addressing a briefing called at Luthuli House to reflect on the first 100 days of the GNU, Mashatile said that it was in the ANC’s interest for the 10-party coalition government to succeed.
The assessment by the ANC comes against a backdrop of tensions with the DA over the national issues and the removal of its Tshwane mayor, Cilliers Brink, with its federal chairperson, Helen Zille, threatening that it could collapse the GNU and city-level talks.
There has also been pushback against the GNU within the ANC, particularly in Gauteng, and from the South African Community Party (SACP), which has now threatened to break away from its alliance with the ANC over the party’s relationship with the DA.
Mashatile said, however, the arrangement was working thus far.
“We believe that the 100 days have been very successful in our work. Since the setting up of the GNU, the country is stable, there’s a stable government and a government that is working. We are happy about that,” he said.
Mashatile said all those in the cabinet see themselves as a team rather than individuals from different political parties and the president is the only commander-in-chief.
“There were those who thought maybe the new government came from 10 parties, there are going to be squabbles and quarrels, but the truth is that all those parties are working well together. We actually see ourselves as one team ….”
He said when the leaders of all the parties met last month for the dinner to which they were invited by Ramaphosa, they agreed there should be a structure that would be chaired by him to deal with disagreements within the GNU.
“Our first meeting will be this coming Thursday where I will meet all the leaders of the other parties to deal with all the issues they are concerned about whether it’s the Bela Act or the NHI or any other matter that they may want to deal with. We call it the clearing house and it will make sure that by the time the leaders meet, the issues will be dealt with,” Mashatile said.
He said the issues between ANC Gauteng chair Panyaza Lesufi and Zille would be resolved at some point.
“We said to the government of Gauteng led by the ANC, if the DA does not want to be with you in Gauteng, leave them behind, it’s not your problem and they must not make it our problem nationally because we are working well with them nationally,” Mashatile said.
“It’s up to the DA to make sure that they work well with our structures in the provinces. We want our structures to work with them but … Gauteng came to us and said the DA is making impossible demands and we said leave them behind,” he said.
Mashatile said the maturity of the political leadership would ensure that the GNU lasted until the end of its term of office in 2029.
“The GNU is surviving because all of us are mature, we are dealing with issues in a mature way and it’s going to be like that. We will finish the five years,” Mashatile said.
The SACP on Monday asked that a bilateral meeting scheduled with the ANC be called off, the day after it closed ranks around its general secretary, Solly Mapaila, one of the most vocal critics of the GNU.
The SACP central committee at the weekend reaffirmed its “critical” as opposed to “oppositional” stance towards the GNU, saying they would mobilise against a shift to the right in government policy.
The SACP said it would not accept the “wrong things propagated or advanced in the name of the ANC”, including the attempts by the national officials to “isolate” Mapaila from the SACP by portraying him as a “lone voice” against the GNU.
“For the record, Mapaila is not the so-called ‘lone voice’; as our general secretary, he correctly led the charge in advancing our stance as the SACP regarding the right-wing-including GNU coalition arrangement,” the party said.
The SACP “could no longer rely solely on seeking reconfiguration from within” and would look for new allies beyond the ranks of its current alliance.
Mapaila has called for the ANC to dump the DA and instead work with the uMkhonto weSizwe party and the Economic Freedom Fighters.
The SACP has, for some years, been threatening to break away from the ANC and go it alone at the polls and elsewhere.
“While continuing to build the vanguard character of the SACP, we will intensify efforts to forge a popular left front and build a powerful, socialist movement of the workers and poor,” it said.
”This shall form part of the broader imperative to reconfigure the alliance, including from without, and remains open in our modalities to contest the battle of democracy and elections,” the SACP said.
ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula said it was “unfortunate” that the SACP had missed the opportunity to reflect on the GNU.
“It’s unfortunate because today we were supposed to start with the bilateral meeting with the SACP. We thought that the bilateral would make us not talk past each other,” he said.
“We should have been spending a couple of hours talking about this disrespect that comrade Solly was talking about. We should have spent this morning doing this work.”
“We will differ and we will hear from the party what they mean that we are disrespecting them because there’s nothing that has shown we are disrespecting the party. We have been with the party from the beginning of the negotiations.”
Mbalula said it was not helpful for the ANC and its partners to talk to each other through the media.
Tensions within the ANC over the relationship with the DA have also intensified in recent weeks, with the apparent discord between Gatueng and Luthuli House being exploited by Zille.
Mbalula on Sunday tore into Lesufi in a television interview, saying that he would not be allowed to operate in a “rogue” manner and to run a campaign against the secretary general of the ANC.
ANC deputy secretary general Nomvula Mokonyane said they would not allow Zille to dictate terms to the party.
“We know every political party has its own intentions. We will not allow a situation where individual leaders of the ANC at either provincial or national level are pitted against each other by those who are part of the GNU.”
She said she was not aware of any organisational issues between Gauteng and Luthuli House.
“For now there are no organisational issues. If there are issues of personalities, of course, those are issues we will have to manage so that they do not flow into the life of the organisation,” Mokonyane said.