ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula
The inclusion of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in the government of national unity (GNU) would be dangerous and spell the demise of the ANC, its secretary general Fikile Mbalula says.
On Monday, EFF leader Julius Malema said the EFF would support a motion of no confidence in President Cyril Ramaphosa if it were to be brought to parliament, should the ANC continue with what he called its reckless and arrogant approach to governance.
“Do you think Malema will stop his motion of no confidence if we bring him to the GNU, he’s not. He could actually be the worst, he could actually be one who could fast-track our demise,” Mbalula told a media briefing at Luthuli House on Wednesday.
“He’s too dangerous because he comes in many colours, he is not straight. When we deal with the Democratic Alliance (DA), we deal with a clear thing, we deal with criminals that we see.”
The relationship between the ANC and the DA — the two biggest parties in the coalition government — has deteriorated over a now-scrapped 0.5 percentage point VAT that had been scheduled for 1 May, and which the latter appealed at the Western Cape high court.
The standoff between the DA and the ANC over the tax increase has, in recent weeks, brought the ruling coalition formed after May 2024 general elections to the brink, after the former official opposition party defied instructions to vote in support of the fiscal framework. In the end, neither party was prepared to walk away.
On Wednesday, Mbalula said there would be a meeting between the coalition partners on how they would work together in future to avoid a repeat of the budget fallout.
He said the VAT matter could have been settled out of court, and that the DA’s refusal to support Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s now scrapped budget called into question the morality of its continuation in the unity government.
“You can be in the GNU to support a budget that you do not agree with. To us, it is not a make-or-break but a principle that any political party that participates in the GNU will have to answer,” he said.
“The ANC is not in a hurry to dismiss people from the GNU and neither are we afraid of their presence. The GNU will continue to have these features of parties who are within it but disagree on policy issues and that includes the DA.”
On Monday, Malema said if there was a successful motion against Ramaphosa, it could result in DA leader John Stuiinhuisen being the country’s president.
This would not be the first time the EFF took a stance against the ANC; in 2016 it resulted in the DA taking over control of Gauteng metros.
“I want to warn you that this country will have a white president, this country will have Steenhuisen as a president if the ANC is going to behave the way it is behaving,” Malema said.
“A motion of no confidence will come and we will vote with the DA, mobilise all those we can mobilise and vote together with the DA against the president, and then when it’s time to elect a president, we abstain and the ANC loses.”
On Wednesday, Mbalula said Malema’s threats should not be seen as empty rhetoric, noting that after losing its parliamentary majority in last year’s elections, the ANC did not have the ability to defend a motion of no confidence on its own. He quickly added that this did not make it a party without teeth to defend itself.
“He [Malema] says he doesn’t want the DA and the Freedom Front Plus but when it’s convenient, he votes with them,” he said.
“It’s a nature of our political fabric that somebody could raise a motion of no confidence and take it to parliament. Don’t ask me in the environment of coalitions we live in whether that could not happen or anybody could not test that. They can test it, it happens, it’s the era of coalitions.”