Scrapping medical aids and removing medical tax credits in the first draft of the medium-term development plan (MTDP) was a dire warning for the DA that its coalition with the ANC would be a fraught one.
The last time DA leader John Steenhuisen met President Cyril Ramaphosa was in November last year. The discussion was brief and pointed — which pretty much sums up the nature of the relationship between the ANC and the DA in the GNU since then.
The two parties anchor the 10-party coalition that makes up government, after the ANC’s national support slipped to 40% in the 2024 election — a shock for the ANC, but still double the DA’s 20%.
Now the GNU seems to be on the ropes, with the DA demanding that the terms of the partnership be renegotiated. It insists that, at the very least, there must be consultation on contentious issues. This was after Ramaphosa signed the Expropriation Bill into law last Thursday — legislation opposed by the DA, the IFP and the Patriotic Alliance, all part of the GNU.
The DA and ANC met this week at a cabinet lekgotla where another version of the MTDP was to be presented. Ahead of the lekgotla, the DA was in the dark about whether it would still contain the contentious provisions of the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme.
“You’re going to plunge the entire health-care sector into chaos if the NHI will collapse medical aids and remove tax credits in the MTDP,” says Steenhuisen. “That is in the first version. I haven’t seen the latest iteration, but it has not been removed as far as I’m aware.”
NHI is a “red line” for the DA. It is not opposed to the plan in its entirety, but like many sector experts it rejects the funding model as completely unrealistic.
The clash over the Expropriation Act is the latest in a string of significant disagreements. The first was over ANC’s failure to consult the DA when it roped in seven additional political parties to the pact with the DA and the IFP.
“We don’t disagree that there’s an unequal health system in the country,” says Steenhuisen. “We’re saying: ‘Let’s focus on getting the basics right and we can do that over the next five years.’ They can call it NHI — I’m not hung up on the name. But we’re putting on the table an idea for a state-run medical aid that would then work alongside and compete with the private sector for the lower end of the market to bring costs down. It’s very much in line with the inputs that have been made by others. Let’s find a middle way.”
The GNU is anchored in the ANC-DA tie-up. Without that, the ANC would have to form a minority government and somehow attract support in parliament from former president Jacob Zuma’s MK Party, which was almost entirely the reason the ANC was knocked off its clear-majority pedestal in May 2024.
The clash over the Expropriation Act is the latest in a string of significant disagreements.
The first was over ANC’s failure to consult the DA when it roped in seven additional political parties to the pact with the DA and the IFP. As the first signatories, these two parties expected to be consulted on the addition of others.
The second was the DA receiving only six ministerial posts when it had demanded 12, along with Ramaphosa’s surprise enlargement of the cabinet — which reduced the DA’s proportional share of posts even further.
The third was Ramaphosa’s signing the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill into law, and the fourth was last week’s signing of the Expropriation Act.
Another disagreement, predating the formation of the GNU, was Ramaphosa’s assenting to the NHI Act on the eve of the election. The DA has described NHI as a “red line”, saying that in its present form it is unaffordable, would sour business confidence and erode the country’s appeal for investors.
“I think there needs to be a great deal more interaction between the leaders of the coalition partners,” Steenhuisen tells the FM.
He invokes the arrangement created in 2012 in the UK under then prime minister David Cameron as an example of how consultation and consensus among key leaders can steer the coalition through turbulent waters.
Ramaphosa had set up the “clearing house”, a dispute resolution mechanism chaired by Deputy President Paul Mashatile, but Steenhuisen says it is ineffective as it lacks terms of reference.
“In the UK they had what was called the Quad — Cameron, George Osborne, Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander. They would meet regularly before cabinet meetings and try to head off some of the more contentious issues. Is there anyone doing that in our presidency and with the coalition partners? No, there’s not.”
It was only after Steenhuisen declared a dispute in a letter to Ramaphosa over the weekend that a presidency official called him to a meeting with the president, which took place as the FM went to print on Tuesday evening.
Ramaphosa had set up the “clearing house”, a dispute resolution mechanism chaired by Deputy President Paul Mashatile, but Steenhuisen says it is ineffective as it lacks terms of reference. DA federal council chair Helen Zille has suggested that the clearing house, which she forms part of, has become a “hallelujah chorus” for the ANC by other parties in the GNU over disputes raised by the DA.
The problem is the coalition partners have to answer to their constituencies when the government they are part of implements policies they oppose.
Steenhuisen says: “If I did perhaps have some notice about what was going to happen coming down the road with the Expropriation Bill, I could have maybe taken action or said: ‘Hang on, let’s just get the following out of the way. Or we need to have an answer about these contradictory clauses.’ Instead, as I said, I found out about it on social media.”
He says after the announcement of the signing, he got calls from DA members asking when the decision was made and what was going on. “It puts you in a difficult spot politically. I think it’s important that as coalition partners we respect each other. I must respect the president and his role as leader of his party, and I think there should be respect from him for leaders of other parties.”
After Tuesday’s meeting between Ramaphosa and Steenhuisen, the partners were to get down to work in a crucial cabinet lekgotla on Wednesday to set the agenda for the year ahead — and the tone and content for Ramaphosa’s opening of parliament address on February 6.
The meeting was set to be tense. DA ministers may have been preparing to draw their red lines over the MTDP
and NHI.
Apparently the ANC leadership does not see much room for compromise — not so much to upset the DA, but to placate the elements in the party that are hostile to the GNU.
The party held a two-day lekgotla over the weekend, where secretary-general Fikile Mbalula hailed the move by Ramaphosa to sign the Expropriation Act. Ramaphosa in his closing address sought to shut down detractors, both inside and outside the ANC and the tripartite alliance, accusing him of “selling out” by co-operating with the DA.
“Those who have been doubtful about the efficacy of our participation in the GNU, and even doubting whether we will be able to continue to execute the policies of our movement that are meant to advance the interest of our people, will have to see whether we are deviating or staying the course, and we are staying the course,”
“It puts you in a difficult spot politically. I just think it’s important that as coalition partners we respect each other.
— John Steenhuisen
he said.
Ramaphosa said the ANC had a responsibility to implement its policies as it had committed to the people to do so. “And more importantly, to advance the interests of our people through the various decisions that we have taken, that we are taking, and that we will continue to take — be they related to education, health, or the issue of land.”
Mbalula indicated in a media briefing this week that the ANC is committed to seeing through legislation passed in the previous administration. However, he said it is open to dialogue with its coalition partners, and that the party remains committed to the GNU.
But the dialogue Mbalula refers to is clearly not happening in any meaningful way. Ramaphosa is not even going through the motions of consultation, which pushes his partners into a very weak position.
If he persists, the DA in particular will be damned either way — humiliated because it is part of a government in which it is seen to have no influence on the big issues, and impotent to perform the aggressive role of a good opposition party.
That’s a tightrope the DA cannot continue to walk, and Ramaphosa might consider making it a bit easier for them. This will be another testy week for the awkward bedfellows which constitute the seventh administration, South Africa’s curtain raiser into national coalition territory.
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