The tension between the two dominant GNU partners were palpable in the National Assembly on Thursday, as President Cyril Ramaphosa lashed out at DA ministers for claiming government successes as blue party victories.
Ramaphosa rejected calls by the DA and the Freedom Front Plus ― another GNU partner ― to scrap Black Economic Empowerment laws, saying it was in fact time to ramp them up.
The DA has even gone as far as tabling an anti-Black Economic Empowerment bill in parliament, called the “Economic Inclusion for All Bill”, arguing B-BBEEE benefited only politically connected elites.
Ramaphosa was replying to the Sona debate that took place on Tuesday and Wednesday, after last week’s address to the nation.
During the debate, ministers and MPs from the DA claimed credit for successes in various government portfolios such as agriculture, home affairs, communications, basic education, and public works.
They were joined by the FF-Plus in their ongoing campaign against the BEE legal framework.
But Ramaphosa, to loud cheers from ANC benches and other opposition parties, would have none of it.
The president slammed the DA for claiming credit for programmes that government had long started before they joined the executive.
“In cabinet, there are no parties. There are no ANC, DA, IFP, PA, UDM, GOOD, FF-Plus or Al Jama-ah ministers,” he said to applause from MPs bar the DA’s.
“So no minister or deputy minister should publicly claim their work in the GNU as an achievement of their party.
“In many cases the basis for their achievements were laid before they even came into office. And in many cases they will also realise their objectives will be the work that we do together.
“Our successes and achievements are the achievements of a collective by the same measure; we are collectively responsible for our mistakes and our shortcomings. It is our commitment to the principle of partnership and shared responsibility that has made the GNU to work.”
We should all be working together to make sure we rid our country of the injustices of the past. So we must see black economic empowerment not as a cost to the economy but as an investment to the sustainable growth of our economy, and that is why I announced in the Sona that we are undertaking a review of the B-BBEE framework to ensure that it supports greater transformation and inclusive growth.
— President Cyril Ramaphosa
Ramaphosa, who had placed economic reforms and economic growth at the centre of his Sona, said any push for the scrapping of B-BBEE “touched a very raw nerve” in him as a former trade unionist who fought against unfair labour and economic practices in the mining sector in the 1980s.
“Now is not the time to abandon black economic empowerment. Now is the time to make it even more effective.
“We should all be working together to make sure we rid our country of the injustices of the past. So we must see black economic empowerment not as a cost to the economy but as an investment to the sustainable growth of our economy, and that is why I announced in the Sona that we are undertaking a review of the B-BBEE framework to ensure that it supports greater transformation and inclusive growth.”
Shortly after Ramaphosa’s speech, DA leader John Steenhuisen said in a statement that his party would remain unrelenting on the matter.
“The DA remains committed to the government of national unity because it is helping to stabilise South Africa after years of governance failure, and because it serves as a bulwark against instability and extremist policy alternatives. But participation in the GNU does not mean passive support. It means driving reform from within, fighting corruption, and holding the executive accountable where urgency is lacking.
“Where the President’s reply reaffirmed reform, we welcome it. Where it fell short of decisive action, we will continue to push for faster implementation. The key test following the Sona and the President’s reply is whether government will accelerate structural reforms that unlock growth and jobs.
“The DA has consistently called for urgent reforms, including improving our ports and rail through accelerated private concessions, ending cadre deployment and enforcing merit-based appointments, accelerating energy market reform and the unbundling of Eskom. For example BEE must be replaced by an alternative that address poverty, not race, such as the DA’s Economic Inclusion for All Bill, to attract capital and create jobs. These are practical economic reforms, not ideological positions, and they are essential to achieving sustained growth. We have begun to turn a corner, but turning the corner is not the destination.”
Ramaphosa said drawing on experiences from the National Logistics Crisis Committee, private sector companies would this year be more involved in co-running the ports and freight rail networks along with Transnet.
“This year will be a watershed moment for our logistics reform as private rail companies begin to operate our freight rail network on a concessionary basis and for private sector participation to initiate port and rail infrastructure. In undertaking these far-reaching changes, we are essentially strengthening the state, and we are rebuilding our state enterprises.”
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