By Zukile Majova
Political Editor
The ANC is adamant that no single party can collapse the proposed Government of National Unity.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to announce his cabinet soon after consultation with the top leadership of the ANC, its alliance partners and members of the GNU.
On Wednesday, after his inauguration, Ramaphosa warned that troublemakers inside the GNU could be removed.
The ANC said it was building a GNU that would be stable and not easily sabotaged by the exit of one or two partners.
ANC chief whip Mdumiseni Ntuli told Newzroom Afrika on Thursday that the exit of the DA would sabotage the GNU but would open the door for the MK party and the EFF to reconsider their rejection of the GNU.
MK and the EFF hold 25% of the seats in the National Assembly but have refused to join the GNU if the DA is part of it.
There was still no clarity on whether the EFF was totally out of the GNU because its leader, Julius Malema, has said the EFF could join if it were offered the chairpersonship of some portfolio committees in parliament.
The Fighters have proposed deputy president Floyd Shivambu to chair the subcommittee on finance.
Fears that the DA could walk out and collapse the entire deal surfaced this week after it failed to block the inclusion of Gayton McKenzie’s PA into the GNU.
Helen Zille, the DA’s federal council chairperson, created a storm when she said the entry of new political parties into the GNU required the approval of the DA and the IFP.
She described these as the two founding members of the GNU together with the ANC and suggested the PA should not be a member of the GNU without the DA’s approval.
But Ntuli said “Madame Zille” is not in charge of the GNU.
“The principal leader of the GNU is the ANC. Everybody else who has signed and ascended to the GNU, irrespective of who came first or who comes last, did so at the invitation of the ANC,” he said.
Ntuli said the latest arrivals, like the PAC, were not regarded as junior members of the GNU.
“The DA was indeed the first organisation to sign the statement of intent, but that did not elevate them to be the founding members of the GNU.
“The leader and the principal leader of the GNU is the ANC,” said Ntuli.
Pictured above: Cyril Ramaphosa and DA leader John Steenhuisen.
Source: X
