The IFP has weighed in on the debate by party leaders involved in the government of national unity (GNU) calling the recent public spat between the ANC and DA irresponsible.
In a wide-ranging interview with TimesLIVE Premium, IFP president Velenkosini Hlabisa said the IFP would raise its concerns about the public disagreements during meetings with its coalition partners.
This comes after the ANC’s secretary-general Fikile Mbalula and DA federal council chair Helen Zille disagreed on the interpretation of a signed statement of intent by parties in the GNU.
The two leaders were at odds about whether the ANC would need a majority consensus on issues during a deadlock.
The ANC is of the opinion that it would not need to consult its GNU partners to accommodate other political parties in the pact, while the DA argues that the signed agreement indicates any party wishing to join the GNU would need the buy-in of existing partners.
Another bone of contention between the two parties is whether President Cyril Ramaphosa would use proportional representation to appoint his new cabinet.
In a coalition, there is no big one. You can have a bigger number, but it's useless because you did not win. You just have to humble yourself. We need to get through engagements and find common ground and move forward
— Velenkosi Hlabisa, IFP president
Hlabisa told TimesLIVE Premium he would raise the conduct of the political party leaders when he meets them. He argued that South Africans need to see the GNU partners speaking with one voice to trust it would work.
He criticised the two leaders saying they were “excited” and wanting to be seen as “champions” of the GNU arrangement.
“Of course I am going to take the third step to say, ‘look this is not necessary.’ Our teams must go to the drawing board and finalise matters and speak with one voice. What we are seeing is not necessary ... You see, some people are excited. Some people want to be seen as champions, as big brothers, as leaders. In a coalition, there is no big one. You can have a bigger number, but it's useless because you did not win. You just have to humble yourself. We need to get through engagements and find common ground and move forward,” he said.
The IFP leader said the negotiations to form a GNU were done in a “rush” with a limited 14 days to form a government. He said the IFP believed it was irresponsible for parties to express the individual view in public without a sufficient consensus on what this clause means.
“Our individual understanding, which might be somehow irresponsible, and you will have to come back two days, three days later and say, no, this is a correct interpretation. So my view and the view of the IFP is there should be a collective communication by the people who are involved in the GNU.
“The good thing that we have done in broad principles, we have agreed to work together, and we've demonstrated it in the National Assembly, where we voted for the speaker from the ANC, the deputy speaker from the DA and the president from the ANC. Any reversal now will really make us stupid.
“Anything that we might feel has some gaps, we have the responsibility to go back to the negotiating room, lock the doors, fine tune whatever we are not clear or sure about, whether we are speaking in one language and then communicate something that is one. At the provincial level we have done it in KwaZulu-Natal. Any reversal within the short space of time will make all of us appear foolish,” he said.
He added that the debate around proportionality was unnecessary. He added that despite the differences between the GNU partners, he was confident that they would not dissolve the arrangement.
“What is best for our country is to express a collective view in the GNU, where we might have some differences, we need to resolve those differences before we communicate,” he said.
