DA says it would not abandon its opposition role despite being in the GNU.
THE DA says there are no strings attached between it and ANC in the government of national unity (GNU), therefore it would continue to play an opposition role by vigorously challenging President Cyril Ramaphosa’s “unconstitutional” decisions.
The former official opposition party, which has become the country’s co-governing pack with its six ministers and six deputies, said it would not abandon court challenges it had launched against Ramaphosa’s conduct and policies it did not support.
Speaking to the ‘Sunday Tribune’ late this week, party spokesperson Willie Aucamp said the DA would not shy away from opposing policies such as National Health Insurance (NHI) and Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Bill, but it would do this “with respect and collegiality”.
The party has gone to the Electoral Court to challenge Ramaphosa for addressing the nation on the eve of the May general elections, which it interpreted as abuse of state resources to campaign for the ANC.
Aucamp said the DA would not withdraw the case.
“That is not how things work, because it is the DA’s duty to take very seriously the upholding of the Constitution and the protection of the Constitution.
“Now that we are in the GNU with the ANC, that obligation does not all of a sudden just disappear,” he said.
Aucamp said the ANC similarly has the right to oppose the DA decisions.
“It does not mean that the GNU must all of a sudden fall because we took the president to court,” he said.
He said prior to the matter being set to be heard in court, the DA tried to settle it out of court as “we believed that it would have been the best option to get a settlement that is reasonable”.
“Unfortunately the request that was put on the table was not agreed to by the ANC as they simply wanted us to withdraw the matter, which obviously we could not do as we can’t just withdraw for the sake of withdrawing, there must be reason,” he said.
Aucamp said the DA wanted Ramaphosa to admit that his speech was wrong as people could have interpreted it as a campaign and that it was an abuse of state resources.
He said while the DA was co-governing, it would play the role of calling upon the GNU to uphold the Constitution.
“Do you for one moment think that when we sat down and formed this GNU we said ‘we will never disagree on anything and that everything is gonna be hunky-dory’? We knew that there would be disagreements.
“It is good that the ANC agrees with us on that the Constitution is non-negotiable, which is why certain parties that want to fight for the abolishment of the Constitution did not form part of the GNU,” he said.
Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube, a DA member, was expected to implement the Bela Bill once Ramaphosa sign it into law even without addressing loophole identities brought by the DA.
Aucamp said the DA reserved a right to take the bill to the Constitutional Court.
“If the Constitutional Court found that the bill is constitutional, then it is passed and it has to be implemented whether you agree with it or not,” said Aucamp.
Freedom Front Plus (FF+) whose leader Pieter Groenewald is the Minister of Correctional Services, said it was in a process of taking the NHI to court for its alleged unconstitutionality.
“The challenge of the NHI is in the interest of upholding constitutionality and thus poses no risk to the GNU or the FF+'s involvement in such.
“The GNU is a multi-party government and the very nature of such formation dictates policy differences and finding compromises in the broad interest of all South Africans,” said FF+ spokesperson Wouter Wessels.
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said that since the GNU was not a melting pot where differences among parties ceased to exist, contradictions were allowed as they were when the ANC governed the country by an overwhelming majority.
He said the GNU must speak in one voice in relation to government programmes.
“There are protocols in government that ministers don’t just pronounce policies and speak out of terms without processing matters.
“You can express your wish every day, but as long as it is not government policy it will not be implemented,” said Mbalula.