Key topics
- DA defends GNU while battling ANC, warning against foreign intervention.
- Mashaba attacks DA, claims GNU benefits elites over ordinary citizens.
- EFF criticizes Ramaphosa for calling Musk, citing breach of protocol.
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By John Matisonn ___STEADY_PAYWALL___
Pre-SONA statements from opposition parties generated much heat and a little light as they adjust their positions to the GNU politics of 2025.
As the junior coalition partner, DA leader John Steenhuisen tread a fine line by defending the GNU against foreign intervention from Washington DC while fighting battles against the ANC from within.
Meanwhile Action South Africa leader Herman Mashaba tried to brand the DA Ministers, without evidence, as joining the gravy train, and the EFF, absurdly, accused President Ramaphosa of a “breach of protocol” for calling Elon Musk after he attacked government policy.
Without naming Afriforum, Steenhuisen appealed to South Africans not to take their complaints about land confiscation to overseas leaders because of the damage it could do to South Africa.
“Property rights are vital,” Steenhuisen told a pre-SONA briefing. ‘We will take the new law to the constitutional court because we are satisfied it is unconstitutional.
“But,” he continued, “I don’t think it is helpful to spread misinformation that has real world consequences, if it leads to the cancellation of aid or preferential access to foreign trade.”
He said the two reasons the DA went into the GNU remain — to block radicals from power and to turn South Africa around.
“South Africa is inescapably better because the DA is in the government. So we will continue to fight inside the government. We must understand that we will not always get our way, but not allow those who brought South Africa to its knees to get back into government to commit grand theft and return us to terrible service delivery.
“We cannot let those who brought South Africa to its knees return to government to pursue grand theft and terrible service delivery.”
In his message, Herman Mashaba, scathingly attacked the DA by associating it with the woes of the ANC executives in government.
“The GNU has turned into an ANC led coalition where only the cadres and their politically connected friends, and now former loud opposition party officials, continue to prosper while ordinary South Africans are left behind.”
Mashaba said that the ANC has turned BEE “into EEE: Exclusive Economic Empowerment of the political elite while South Africans are left out in the cold.”
The ActionSA leader also called for a change in foreign policy.
“Let us move away from emotion driven, Soviet-era attachments and learn to be transactional in our relationship with all global powers. We must be clear about what is in it for us in South Africa in our relationship with others.”
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) released a statement claiming that President Cyril Ramaphosa’s call to South African born billionaire Elon Musk after Musk described South Africa’s land policies as “racist” was improper. Musk is now an unpaid adviser to the government of US President Donald Trump.
“The EFF is dismayed by the decision of President Cyril Ramaphosa to break diplomatic protocols by calling an unelected government official, Elon Musk, to explain himself about the Expropriation Act that he recently signed into law.
“This breaking of diplomatic protocol should never be taken lightly by citizens, as it is a clear indication of how the sovereignty of our country is compromised at the behest of pandering for US foreign aid; and a reflection of how Ramaphosa is willing to embarrass the country to the world as a result of a dependency syndrome.”
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