Mbalula warns GNU may have to be ‘reconfigured’ over budget deadlock
ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula warned on Tuesday that the party may reconsider the current government of national unity (GNU) if the Democratic Alliance (DA) continues to obstruct budget negotiations in Parliament.
“If we engage in this process in terms of political scoring, it may lead to a situation where the GNU itself has to be reconfigured.
“The ANC is committed to the GNU with all its partners but the maturity of partners is very important,” Mbalula said during a media briefing after the party’s national executive committee meeting held over the weekend in Johannesburg.
Tensions between the ANC and DA have mounted over delays in passing the national budget. The parties have held a series of meetings to negotiate DA support.
Mbalula suggested that although the ANC remains committed to the coalition, it will not tolerate behavior that undermines the broader objectives of governance.
He said parties entering the GNU with individual political agendas risk destabilising the partnership.
“The ANC is not wielding an axe which we want to cut people in the GNU; they will cut themselves out and we will proceed.”
The remarks follow public criticism from DA officials about the ANC’s handling of the negotiations.
On Friday, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana told parliament’s finance committees that the DA had previously written to President Cyril Ramaphosa accepting a VAT increase in exchange for scrapping recently passed legislation, including the controversial Expropriation Act.
Asked for comment, DA spokesperson Karabo Khakhau accused Godongwana of negotiating “in bad faith.”
“It is not a secret that the party has been negotiating with the ANC over measures to remove obstacles to the creation of economic growth and jobs and create an enabling environment to get the country off the high debt, low growth trajectory and onto a path to prosperity,” Khakhau said.
“We have demanded a series of growth-enhancing reforms and a plan to lower taxes over the next three years. That’s the only thing that can work to bring relief for tax,” she continued.
“It is a pity that the finance minister, who made a hack job of the process in the first place, is now trying to negotiate in bad faith through the media when we are doing so in good faith through the channels created for this without being honest about the fact that we called for the reduction of tax in the next three years.”
In a post on X, DA leader and Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen escalated the rhetoric, warning: “Time is almost up. Last night, the ANC refused to finalise an agreement on growth and spending reforms, imperilling the GNU. The DA will oppose the budget unless and until a written agreement is reached.”
Mbalula pushed back against suggestions that a final deal had been struck. “We have been engaging on their issues that they have put across. To suggest that there has been an agreement between us and them is not correct. We have been engaging everybody in the GNU, including the DA. The DA came with a catalogue of issues and they were swift from time to time,” he said.
“At the end of the day, we are committed to the country and we are very much confident that we will cross with a major breakthrough sometime this week. We need to pass the budget for the sake of South Africa but at the same time we need to be alive and talk to others and that is what we are clear as the ANC.”
Mbalula also criticised the DA for raising issues unrelated to the budget during the negotiations.
“They raise issues of devolution. We are addressing the issue of devolution …”
He declined to disclose the DA’s specific demands, saying it would be “disingenuous and negotiating in bad faith” for the ANC to do so. Still, he signalled optimism that consensus was within reach.
Based on the discussions they had yesterday and today, the parties were getting closer to reaching a consensus to vote for the budget, Mbalula said
“The closeness will then be consolidated to an agreement because this is our first budget of the GNU that we need to pass. What that agreement is going to entail, it is going to be important for everyone to have an oversight of it,” he said.