To the immense discomfort and anger of many in the ANC, Tony Leon has revealed some fascinating behind-the-scenes details from the talks that led to the formation of the GNU last year. His new book, Being There, has just been released.
The former DA leader reflected this week in an interview with the FM on the deterioration of the relationship between the ANC and the DA in the GNU, as evidenced by the budget impasse that has dominated politics since February.
This week alone has been ground-breaking for the country. Finance minister Enoch Godongwana made an astonishing about-turn on his planned VAT increase. For the first time in the country’s democratic history, or indeed ever, a third iteration of the national budget will be tabled. It will have to be negotiated and agreed to by the 10 parties constituting the GNU.
In the aftermath of the May 29 2024 election, when the ANC’s vote on the national scoreboard stubbornly remained at about 40%, Leon sought the counsel of Roelf Meyer, one of the main architects of the transition to democracy three decades ago. Leon asked Meyer what the “key ingredient” would be for a coalition arrangement to work.
His reply, Leon says, was that there has to be “a proper relationship at the top” between President Cyril Ramaphosa and DA leader John Steenhuisen. “That should percolate or permeate downwards. If that’s in place, a lot of things are possible. If it’s not in place, then I don’t think it’s going to operate very effectively, or we’re just going to stumble on from crisis to crisis until it explodes,” Leon says.
The relationship (or lack of one) between Ramaphosa and Steenhuisen has proved to be problematic. The final meeting between the ANC and the DA ahead of the delivery of Godongwana’s second budget was between the two leaders — and it did not go well.
Speaking to the ANC’s parliamentary caucus later that day, Ramaphosa expressed dismay at the lack of progress in the talks and at the DA’s stance in the standing committee on finance when it voted on the fiscal framework.
That was the choice you made. You added insult upon insult towards the ANC and called the ANC all manner of names
— Ramaphosa to Steenhuisen
According to a leaked recording of his remarks, Ramaphosa told the ANC caucus that Steenhuisen asked him: “Where do we go from here?”
Ramaphosa replied: “I said: ‘The ball is entirely in your court.’ He asked if the ANC says we should leave the GNU. I said: ‘The ball is in your court. You have put yourself in this position, so you need to work your way out. You took a decision in the [parliamentary] committee. That was the choice you made. You added insult upon insult towards the ANC and called the ANC all manner of names.’
“I said: ‘What seems to please you [the DA] is that you want to be in government, and you also want to be in opposition,’ and I said: ‘You can’t have your cake and eat it.’”
It does not help that what Steenhuisen had apparently agreed to in private with Ramaphosa was later scuppered after the DA’s strategists got involved. A senior ANC source says that, at times, the party prefers to work with DA federal council chair Helen Zille because she “tells it like it is”.
There is little evidence of a close relationship between Ramaphosa and Steenhuisen. Insiders say it is at best cordial.
Steenhuisen was the cause, seven years ago, of a rare public loss of composure by Ramaphosa in parliament. “And shut up you, Steenhuisen, and listen … I want you to shut up, I really want you to shut up because Honourable Steenhuisen continues to make a noise,” Ramaphosa said, before being asked by the deputy speaker to withdraw his “unparliamentary language”.
“When you are a president, you need to remain calm. This is not the national executive committee, this is parliament,” Steenhuisen retorted.
Ramaphosa complained that Steenhuisen had disrupted his response to a parliamentary question on the national minimum wage with outbursts like “you are talking nonsense”.
Politicians seldom hold grudges over interactions in parliament, but Steenhuisen did irk the president in a way that few opposition MPs have managed.
Leon says another major problem for the GNU is that the ANC has largely ignored the statement of intent it signed with the DA to “operationalise” the coalition.
“It does contain the modalities for operationalising the coalition and they’ve only been observed in their breach, by and large,” he says. “There’s meant to be a mechanism that’s going to set up the relationship on a proper structured basis. It doesn’t seem to have happened.”
Far more progress would have been made in setting policy and an economic direction if there had been “a proper, rational, comprehensive discussion”.
As the GNU shifts into reset mode, it has to go back to the basics, building trust and, crucially, the procedures for proper functioning. That is, if the ANC and the DA still have the political will for national coalition building.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.