The African National Congress is in a tight spot over its pledge to give the New National Party seats in ANC-controlled provincial cabinets.
After delivering Cape Town to the ANC in the first week of floor crossing, the NNP clearly expects the provincial rewards pledged in last November’s pact between the parties.
Smuts Ngonyama, the ANC spokesperson, conceded this week there were ”expectations”. But he insisted there was ”no signed agreement. The ANC is under no obligation to appoint NNP members”.
The pact was reached last November after the Democratic Alliance broke up. It provides for the appointment of NNP members to executive councils and legislature structures in provinces ”with an ANC majority and NNP presence”.
The two parties announced last weekend that they would implement the pact in all provinces. But ANC members at national and provincial levels are known to be resisting providing provincial cabinet jobs to the Nats.
At a meeting late last year, the ANC’s national executive frowned on aspects of the pact. It believed the party’s negotiator, Mosuioa Lekota, conceded too much.
The national executive later resolved that provinces should decide how to accommodate the NNP.
A key snag is that the Constitution provides for a maximum of 11 provincial cabinet members, meaning ANC incumbents would be displaced.
One ANC member said the pact’s reference to ”an NNP presence” was open to interpretation. Many members believed only the Western and Northern Cape had a Nat presence.
”We’ve already saved them from extinction and passed floor-crossing legislation to help them leave the DA,” said a senior ANC member in Gauteng.
Senior ANC insiders said future appointments would be hammered out at a summit of the party’s national working committee and the NNP’s federal council before December.
An optimistic Van Schalkwyk said this week the ANC had been consistent in keeping its end of the bargain. Agreement on the Western Cape government had been implemented and the local government aspect had started unfolding this week, he said.