Call me a geek. Laugh and point at me scornfully if you need to. I am going to say it anyway: I love the statement of intent that underpins the government of national unity (GNU). First signed by ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula and DA federal council chair Helen Zille in Cape Town on June 14, it is seven pages of unadorned, unshowy dynamite.
The document has a brief, pointed, businesslike preamble. It sets out the scene in just 1½ pages, from 1994 to how we found ourselves, after the May 29 election, in a place where we had to set up a GNU. The preamble ends with a loud, proud, pure reaffirmation and “collective commitment to the founding values of the constitution and to the preamble to the constitution”.
It then outlines the GNU’s foundational principles, its “basic minimum programme of priorities”, and finally the modalities or workings of the envisaged pact.
I like the statement because whenever there is a dispute, we can all go back to it and root around in its slim bones for what the thinking of its first drafters was, and how they saw the union working. One of those key things is at clause 23, where the drafters proclaim: “Parties to this agreement will form a GNU consultations council that will be responsible for consultations and monitoring progress on the minimum programme of the GNU, and alignment of the seventh administration’s programme, its resourcing and implementation mechanisms.”
What, pray tell, is this “minimum programme of the GNU” they speak of? I scratched my head thinking about this last week when I read that President Cyril Ramaphosa had appointed a new presidential economic advisory council for his seventh administration. The council’s role is to advise Ramaphosa and the government on the development and implementation of economic policy, and ensure that the government is better equipped to respond to changing economic circumstances.
This is the second iteration of the council. Back in 2019, in the flush of what Ramaphosa claimed was a new dawn, the president said in his state of the nation address that he would appoint these impressive individuals “to ensure greater coherence and consistency in the implementation of economic policy and ensure that the government and society in general are better equipped to respond to changing economic circumstances”.
The GNU started well, but it has fallen into the trap of being in office without a clear plan outlining what it is doing in that office
It was an incredibly impressive group of people. Five months after their appointment, the pandemic hit. In July 2021, the devastating riots carried out in former president Jacob Zuma’s name happened. Our economy stayed in the doldrums, extending the woeful state capture years of no growth, high unemployment, corruption and poor investment.
What did Ramaphosa tell the advisers at their first meeting in 2019? What was their brief? At the time the ANC had won 57% of the vote and was solely in charge of government policy. It could frame the debate, set the parameters and allow these brilliant people to play.
When he announced the new advisory council last week, I wondered once again what he would tell these achievers — now fortified with new members — at their first meeting. Seriously, what is “the minimum programme of the GNU”? What are the goals that the ANC and the DA, and the rest of the parties in the GNU, set themselves for these next few years — and how do they envisage achieving them?
The GNU will celebrate six months of existence in December. The sad truth is that we do not know what its economic turnaround plan for this country is. We know that the ANC has its plans, and it likes to pretend it runs economic policy, but it failed to win a majority. Ditto the DA. Now they are in bed together. Six months into the union, whose plan are they implementing? How?
Ask any student of the coalitions of the past eight years in South Africa and they will tell you that they all collapsed because there was never a well-discussed, publicly released agreement between the parties getting together. The GNU started well with a clear and forward-looking statement of intent, but it has fallen into the trap of being in office without a clear plan outlining what it is doing in that office.
Let me say that again: there is no plan.
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