(Graphic: John McCann/M&G)
The rejection of three departmental budgets in the National Assembly has triggered alarm in the ANC caucus and among senior leaders, prompting the party to look for alternative partners to push the votes through.
Chief whip Mdumiseni Ntuli told the Mail & Guardian that the party had taken note of the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) threats to reject the budgets of ANC ministers implicated in corruption and was seeking the support of smaller parties, just as it had done in the protracted process to approve the national budget earlier this year.
The party is now focused on consolidating its support in parliament to avoid being politically “indebted” to a partner in the government of national unity (GNU) that “changes its stance frequently and is against transformation”, Ntuli said.
“We have resolved to speak to other parties to help us pass the votes in parliament where the DA has shown that it will reject our ministers’ budgets. We continuously work to maintain communication and cooperation with other parties in the National Assembly, so we are not put in a position where we rely on the DA, whose stance tends to shift frequently,” he said.
According to an opinion by senior parliament legal adviser Frank Stander Jenkins, the Appropriation Bill, which authorises government spending, cannot be passed unless the National Assembly approves all 42 departmental allocations (“votes”) listed in schedule 1 of the Bill.
The DA has rejected the budgets for the departments of higher education, human settlements and police, headed respectively by ministers Nobuhle Nkabane, Thembi Simelane and Senzo Mchunu, who was suspended by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday over corruption allegations.
The DA said it could not support Simelane’s budget because of her alleged involvement in the looting of the now-defunct VBS Mutual Bank and it rejected Nkabane’s budget over what it called her dishonesty to parliament on the appointment of Sector Education and Training Authorities (Seta) boards.
If the DA succeeds in its quest and gets support from other parties to reject the departmental budgets, the full schedule and final budget cannot be considered until all individual votes are adopted by a majority of MPs.
The ANC’s Ntuli said the party has been forced back to the negotiation table with small parties including Herman Mashaba’s ActionSA and Mmusi Maimane’s Build One South Africa.
“We have to ensure the budget passes, with or without the DA. It means exploring other configurations, some temporary, to get the votes we need,” he said.
Presenting the party’s budget speech on Wednesday, Ntuli called on parties in the GNU to put citizens first before party politics.
“The debates of our national budget requires that we must refuse to be imprisoned and enslaved by party parochial interests and truly act in the best interest of the people. The neglected, the ignored, the marginalised, the impoverished, the mutinous in our country are knocking at the door of democracy,” he said.
He questioned the sincerity of some GNU partners, suggesting they may not be fully committed to the goals of poverty eradication and national transformation.
“The face of poverty is black, the face of inequality is black, the face of the landless is black and the face of unemployment and economic exclusion is black. This is an objective reality with which we must contend with,” Ntuli said.
ActionSA chairperson Michael Beaumont said the ANC had not yet approached it for support, but the party would be willing to vote with the ANC provided the budgets meet departmental merits.
“ActionSA will be willing to listen to proposals but we will ultimately vote based on the merit of the budget in question. ActionSA does not see its role to bail out the ANC when they have a fallout with their GNU partners over budgets they did not bother to consult ActionSA about in the first instance,” he said.
ANC insiders say the party is running out of patience with the DA’s approach to coalition governance, with one senior source in the presidency describing the DA’s behaviour this week as “reckless and performative”.
“There is a difference between exercising oversight and actively sabotaging the legislative process. The DA crossed that line,” the source said.
Another source in the deployment committee said: “The budget must pass. That’s the priority, but we’re going to do it on our terms, with those who are serious about governing.”
Although the ANC and DA face off in parliament, neither party has shown appetite to walk away from the coalition agreement, with DA leader John Steenhuisen admitting that the unity government remains the “best available option” to ensure stability despite growing tensions over governance and policy direction.
The DA has defended its decisions, insisting it is fulfilling its constitutional duty to scrutinise the executive. Party spokesperson Karabo Khakhau said the party would not be “a rubber stamp for dysfunctional departments”.
“If a department can’t meet basic standards or account for its budget, we will not support its vote. That’s not obstruction, that’s responsible governance,” she said.
The party also denied acting unilaterally, pointing out that all parties in the GNU were free to vote independently unless formal agreements dictated otherwise. But the ANC sees the DA’s conduct as a breach of the political compact underpinning the unity government.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), which is outside the GNU, also voted against most of the departmental votes, saying they failed to tackle the structural crisis of poverty and unemployment and arguing that Ramaphosa is presiding over a corrupt government.
Although the EFF is unlikely to join any formal alliance with the ANC, senior ANC sources say they may approach the party to negotiate abstentions on key votes, which could lower the threshold required to pass.
The legal stipulation that the Appropriation Bill cannot be finalised unless all 42 votes are adopted individually is intended to ensure departmental spending is linked to measurable objectives and not simply waved through en masse. But it also gives coalition partners leverage, allowing them to withhold support on select votes to force political negotiations.
The committee is expected to meet on Monday to review the failed votes and plan the way forward. ANC negotiators are working behind the scenes to line up sufficient support to bring the schedule back to the floor by mid-July.
The vote is expected to take place in the coming week after MPs serving in the joint justice and police committees deliberate on what should happen to Mchunu who has been accused of interfering.