I truly hope that the Government of National Unity (GNU) succeeds at moving South Africa forward, but I am one among many that applaud the DA in Gauteng for abandoning a raw deal and remaining an opposition party.
In a sense, the GNU is President Cyril Ramaphosa’s last shot at redemption and his comrades may just ruin both. His fairly lengthy tenure as president of the country has been marred by slow growth, stubbornly-high unemployment, and long and intense bouts of load-shedding – to name just a few challenges and failures.
He now has a diverse range of sensible people in his cabinet, and he must seize this opportunity to steer policy-making in a new direction and away from stultified one-party rule. But no sooner had these appointments been made and his party in Gauteng is up to all sorts of skullduggery and maneuvering that is outsized to their support in the province.
Proportionality seems to be a byword for continued ANC dominance after a dismal electoral performance. The ANC received a much-reduced 34% of the vote in the province and the DA 27%. Panyasa Lesufi got the DA’s support after to remain the province’s premier when his governance record does not justify his retention.
And yet, the ANC and Lesufi had the gall to offer the DA only two or three portfolios in the provincial administration while it retains six or seven while ceding one or two to a smaller party of the ANC’s choosing. Thus, the ANC wants to retain a majority of the seats and governing power when the people of Gauteng did not choose this. The DA wisely rejected this offer.
The same happened at national level. For the first time, and admittedly with the generous assistance of MK, the DA received more than half of the ANC’s national support. In the end, the ANC with barely 40% of the vote still retained the presidency, vice-presidency and 20 out of the expanded 32 portfolios. In other words, 62.5% of the cabinet is still comprised of ANC members. The DA with almost 22% received six portfolios and some deputy ministers. Percentage-wise, it got 19% of cabinet positions. To put this into perspective, the IFP with 3.85% of the vote got two vital portfolios, the Freedom Front Plus with a paltry 1.38% got one, while infinitesimal parties were also rewarded with portfolios.
It is reasonable to argue that it could have been worse. These posts, influence and power could have gone to EFF and MK. Disaster averted. However, the political national configuration (and the purported one in Gauteng) smacks of ANC supremacy that is not reflected at the ballot box. Over and above this, they still control most of the provinces through coalitions or outright. To a large extent and importantly, it still controls the bureaucracy at all levels of government outside the Western Cape. It retained dubious ministers and deputy ministers in its many portfolios.
It’s not that I feel sorry for the DA because proportionally they get slightly less than what they mathematically deserve in the GNU. But small parties and especially the ANC were rewarded with jobs and power that are not certainly commensurate with their support. And we as taxpayers will foot the bill for this bloated (and no doubt still ineffective) administration. All because they remained the largest party and could subsequently claim the presidency and premier’s office in Gauteng.
Why does proportionality matter? Because, in the end, it will determine policies and budgets. The “who gets what, when and how”, as Harold Lasswell defined politics. Although the worst-case scenario has been veritably staved off, lest we forget whose misrule created everything that even they claim to now seek to fix. A large portion of the ANC is no better than the EFF and MK. And it seems that the ANC is intent on, govern the chance, automatically usurping the support and power that their former colleagues received in the May elections while leaving them out in the cold.
Lesufi will now in all likelihood have to contend with a minority government. MK and the EFF could mathematically push them over 50% for a coalition, but that would present new challenges in Gauteng and even the GNU. Likewise, the DA’s decision to snub Lesufi’s chicanery could later haunt the GNU.
It is to some extent understandable that the ANC would want to cling to power in South Africa’s economic powerhouse. If not for Gauteng, they would have no meaningful power in any of South Africa’s three biggest provinces and be rendered a rural sideshow in a country that is swiftly urbanizing and is set to hold local elections in 2026. But their obstructionist tendencies will foster a prolonged snafu in Gauteng’s politics that could have been averted had they only played by the rules and respected the will of the people.
Dr Brink is an entrepreneur, business consultant and political analyst based in the Cape Winelands.
