Though the ANC is in a multiparty government of national unity (GNU) it makes decisions and policies and behaves as if it is the majority government, solely in power, without any partners. In doing so it perpetually undermines the stability, longevity and cohesion of South Africa’s first post-1994 national coalition government.
Most of South Africa’s coalitions at municipal level have collapsed in the past because the parties with the most votes behave like majority parties, forcing through their own party-specific policies, decisions and appointments, rather than governing in partnership, consulting their multiparty coalition partners and coming up with consensual policies rather than dominant party policies.
Since coming to power in 1994, the ANC has put together budgets without consulting opposition parties, business or civil society. The ANC put together this year’s national budget by itself, solely based on the ANC’s party policies, as if it was the majority government, without consulting or including the policies and views of its GNU partners.
The post-2024 GNU government is a new multiparty government, not the continuation of the ANC majority government. Yet many ANC leaders, members and supporters misguidedly insist that it is still an ANC government, with the GNU partners as mere add-ons.
Given that it is a new multiparty government and not an ANC majority government, it must come up with new GNU policies, not continue policies and budgets the ANC adopted and implemented when it was the majority government.
Despite the GNU agreement for consensus on policy-making, the ANC has been unable to break from its culture of majority-based decision-making, which excludes other views unless they agree with the ANC's.
The national budget presentation was cancelled on Wednesday hours before its delivery after the DA, one of the parties in the GNU, refused to support it.
The budget was an ANC budget, rather than a GNU budget. Since the GNU partners were not involved in the budget, it would not have been a budget they could have defended to their constituencies and broader South Africa.
The ANC budget of finance minister Enoch Godongwana would have introduced a 2% VAT. The DA opposed the proposed tax increase.
More importantly, blocking the budget was most probably one of the few immediately effective options the DA could use to shock the ANC into changing its decision-making model from a majority-party decision-making model, which is governing by diktat as if it is the only party in power, to a multiparty consultation and consensus-seeking approach.
The GNU’s specially created dispute resolution structure, its “clearing mechanism”, chaired by Deputy President Paul Mashatile, has proved ineffectual, lacking a terms of reference. Its last meeting was in December 2024, so that is clearly not a viable avenue now to resolve disputes.
The Statement of Intent that established the GNU provided for this deadlock-breaking mechanism “in instances where sufficient consensus is not reached”. In the non-ANC GNU partners’ dispute with the ANC over the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act, DA leader John Steenhuisen in a letter to Ramaphosa said the clearing “mechanism was abused [by the ANC] during the dispute over Bela”.
The GNU has offered the ANC not only to remain in government despite this disastrous policy record, but brought it fresh energy, capacity and ideas in the form of non-ANC GNU partners
Despite the ANC in the May 29 general election dropping to 39.7% of the vote, its party leaders still doggedly insist on its party policies — including the composition of the budget.
Given the country’s 33% unemployment, 27 million on social grants, public debt in 2022 of 71.1% of GDP, economic growth averaging 0.8% since 2012, close to R1-trillion in bailouts to state-owned entities excluding government guarantees since 2014, with widespread infrastructure collapse — chronic power and water outages, poor performing public education and health — this paints a picture of the ANC’s party-centric majority-based policies as destructive to the country.
The GNU has offered the ANC not only to remain in government despite this disastrous policy record, but brought it fresh energy, capacity and ideas in the form of non-ANC GNU partners.
Recently, the ANC pushed through the controversial Expropriation Act, a populist-ANC party policy, which allows for property expropriation without compensation. This runs counter to the constitution, and makes provision for expropriation of property for public interest reasons, based on “willing-seller” and fair compensation. The US administration of President Donald Trump has slammed South Africa for undermining property rights, cut off much-needed development aid to our ailing economy, and is threatening to cut off trade benefits under the African Growth and Opportunities Act. US investments and capital may turn away from South Africa.
The ANC has adopted party-interest foreign policies, rather than South African-interest foreign policies, including persistent anti-American foreign policies, though this endangers US development aid, investment, capital to South Africa and market access to our products, which may compound unemployment, debt and poverty levels, and the country's instability. The ANC has insisted that its foreign policy remains in place, even though it has harmed the economy, and may now, following the US accusing the ANC's foreign policy as being anti-American, cause systemic economic damage to the country.
The ANC is also forcing through the National Health Insurance bill, based purely on party ideological grounds, which amounts to essentially nationalising private health care. Most sensible observers say this will tank South Africa's economy, crash the entire health system and cause catastrophic capital and skills flight from the country.
The ANC has also refused to seek a compromise on controversial sections of the Bela Act, another ANC party policy it has hammered through, despite requests by the ANC's GNU partners for amendments to the controversial aspects of the act.
The ANC's development model from its majority government rule days has been based on three pillars. First, the party saw ANC party interests as the same as the country's national interests, often adopting party policies that harmed the economy, the country's stability and national unity.
Second, it often steered clear of introducing public sector reforms that would alienate the party's patronage, ideological and factional interests, but would instead rather focus on taking over successful private sector services, so these sectors can fill the gap where the state fails.
The third pillar of the ANC's development model is when the state fails because of corruption, incompetence and irrational policies, the ANC recoups the revenue losses by increasing taxes and by seeking more loans. Godongwana’s proposed 2% VAT increase is a typical example of that.
The ANC’s development model has not worked and will not work in the future. It will cause even more harm, continuous low growth, deindustrialisation and informalisation of the economy, more breakdown of infrastructure, more collapse of public services, more lawlessness, more unemployment, more poverty, more homelessness and more inequality.
Lastly, the irony of the DA's opposition to the ANC’s VAT budget is that the DA, which many ANC populists attack as anti-poor and anti-black, had to protect the black poor from more punishing tax increases from the supposedly pro-black and pro-poor ANC.
• William Gumede is the founder of Democracy Works Foundation and author of Restless Nation: Making Sense of Troubled Times (Tafelberg)
For opinion and analysis consideration, e-mail Opinions@timeslive.co.za
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