DA behaving like a streetfighter — Mbalula on new battle within GNU

DA is 'either misunderstanding what was agreed or is being mischievous'

28 January 2025 - 20:20
subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula. File photo.
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula. File photo.
Image: Fani Mahuntsi

The ANC would not have agreed to form a GNU that includes the DA had the blue party made it clear from the start that they would want to renegotiate some of the bills passed by the sixth administration.

By not having made this clear during negotiations, the DA was behaving like a typical streetfighter who believes he can always find a way to do things.

This is according to the ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula who on Tuesday said the DA’s invoking clause 19 of the statement of intent was essentially malicious.

Mbalula’s remarks come after the DA went into a frenzy after President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law the land expropriation act.

The act essentially creates a legal framework for land tenure, how to free up land for housing and farming as well as address the historical injustices of land dispossession.

The act also looks into how the government can expropriate properties that are either not being used for what they were intended for or have been abandoned with their owners living abroad.

The DA said Ramaphosa and the ANC government were in breach of clause 19 of the statement of intent. But Mbalula believes the DA is either misunderstanding what they agreed to, or is deliberately being mischievous.

What they agreed to during GNU talks, Mbalula asserted, was that new bills that would be brought under the GNU government would have to be negotiated by the parties.

This has nothing to do with bills that were passed by the sixth administration because once parliament has passed bills the president has to sign them unless there are fundamental constitutional problems with the said bills, said Mbalula and the ANC’s head of policy, Febe Potgieter.

“We did not have an agreement that all the bills that were passed by the sixth administration would come to a halt, in our negotiations. We don't have such an agreement. And as the ANC, if such a matter arose we would’ve been very clear with the DA that we don’t agree,” said Mbalula. “We cannot now use the GNU for bills that have been passed in parliament to halt progress. And if that constituted a deal-breaker it should have happened then.”

We know the interests the DA represents, so we can’t be untruthful when we talk to them, when we were in the negotiations to say to them that we agree with you with a belief that we’ve got a way to get to them. It doesn’t work like that. You become straight
Fikile Mbalula, ANC secretary-general 

By bringing this up now when the GNU negotiations have been concluded, the DA was behaving like a streetfighter, said Mbalula.

“You don’t operate like a streetfighter, ‘I’ll get them that side’. No it doesn’t work like that. You play your cards open. ‘No we are in [the GNU], we will find them, we will find a way’. No. That’s why you’ve got to be honest with people you negotiate with,” said Mbalula.

“We know the interests the DA represents, so we can’t be untruthful when we talk to them, when we were in the negotiations to say to them that we agree with you with a belief that we’ve got a way to get to them. It doesn’t work like that. You become straight.”

Had this assertion come up in the negotiations, the ANC would not have moved forward with the talks, he said.

“If in the negotiations and the discussions it was clear to us that bills that have been passed by the sixth administration must be negotiated afresh, we wouldn’t have agreed to that and there is no such an agreement.”

Potgieter said one of the fundamentals of the GNU as per the statement of intent was the respect for the rule of law.

She said unless the law is unconstitutional, Ramaphosa can’t say he’s not going to sign the law. She said the continued threats to leave the GNU by the DA was “like a little boy crying wolf”.

“And I think that by the time you really implement and there’s really a wolf you may find that nobody is listening because you’ve cried wolf so many times,” she said.

TimesLIVE


subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now

Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.

Speech Bubbles

Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.