Ramaphosa’s firing of Whitfield deepens crisis in fragile coalition: Katzenellenbogen
Key topics:
ANC fired DA minister Whitfield, sparking major coalition tensions
DA threatened to quit GNU but backed down after internal confusion
ANC dominates key policies, sidelining GNU partners like the DA
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By Jonathan Katzenellenbogen*
The ANC has not adapted to the reality of its failure to achieve a majority from the voters last year. That alone accounts for much of the reason for the latest coalition fight over the President Cyril Ramaphosa’s firing of Andrew Whitfield, the DA Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition.
Although it only achieved 40% of the vote last year, the ANC treats its partners in the government of national unity (GNU) with something close to contempt. The ANC short-changed the DA on the number of cabinet posts to which it should have been entitled, and does not even make any attempt at achieving consensus.
The ANC keeps the most important cabinet portfolios for itself, and does not consult on key areas such as foreign policy, defence, and black economic empowerment.
That is why Whitfield’s firing is so serious. It was meant to lay down a marker to the DA not to interfere in foreign policy or other areas that the ANC preserves for itself. The ANC was also irked by Whitfield’s opposition to the R100 billion empowerment fund which would finance only black business.
Whitfield was fired on the pretext of undertaking international travel without permission. It seems that this might well have been engineered, as Whitfield had written to the President asking for permission but only received a reply after an inordinate delay. The purpose of his trip to Washington was to talk to US lawmakers about trade issues, which is well within the remit of his portfolio.
The President sat on the pretext for Whitfield’s dismissal for months, and only used his ammunition last week. That must raise questions about the timing. The ANC’s National Executive Committee, the party’s top decision-making body between its conferences held every five years, is due to meet in just over a week’s time. This might well be a way of diverting attention from pressures Ramaphosa is facing by showing he is being tough on the DA.
Hire and fire
One of the problems that the nine parties that have joined the ANC in the GNU face is that we have what is essentially a Presidential system of government. It is the President who effectively sets the government’s agenda and has the right to hire and fire ministers. Even without a majority in Parliament, an ANC President is still able to exercise inordinate power through our system of government and the deployment of cadres over more than 30 years.
Since the formation of the GNU a year ago, the ANC has attempted to use participation as a means of co-option rather than to build consensus.
After the row broke out over Whitfield’s firing, the ANC Spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu said the DA should “decide whether they are part of the government of national unity or a quasi-opposition party within the executive”.
More than anything, that is a reflection of the ANC’s expectation of compliance with its policies on the part of its nine partners. That reduces the right of the DA to stand up for its policies within the GNU and Parliament. However, that is what they were elected to do.
All the make-or-break crises the GNU has faced so far are due to a failure to compromise by the ANC: the intention to push through National Health Insurance, the signing of the bill allowing expropriation without compensation, and the Basic Education Law Amendment Act have all been due to the ANC pushing through its agenda. The ANC had no option but to compromise on its intention to raise the rate of VAT, as there would have been no budget.
For some of the time the DA has raised the alarm, but then quietened down. As part of the Team SA charm-offensive at the White House to meet President Donald Trump, John Steenhuisen, the DA leader and Minister of Agriculture went along. It was for the greater good that Steenhuisen went along.
Long delayed
But hang on, here was Steenhuisen in Washington, when the DA had not been consulted about foreign policy. He was pretty much being used. Yet as soon as Whitfield visited the US to speak about trade issues, the response from Ramaphosa to his request for permission for a trip outside the country was long delayed, and he got fired.
The DA response to the Whitfield episode has been botched. Issuing an ultimatum and then not acting on it, and changing how the party might respond shows ‘muddling through’. The DA had said it would pull out of the GNU if two compromised ministers were not fired within 48 hours. Then this changed to a threat to vote against the budgets of corruption-accused ANC ministers, to pull out of the National Dialogue, and possibly table a vote of no confidence in the President.
Perhaps the lesson from this, for the DA, is not to issue threats. It should just pull out of the GNU if necessary.
There is one big problem in the DA pulling out of the GNU. It is the same problem the ANC faces in firing the DA from the GNU. The voters like the idea of parties working together. If the DA pulled out it would be penalised at the polls, and if the ANC kicked out the DA it might also face the wrath of the voters.
Big business also likes the idea of the GNU, as it believes there is no better arrangement available and holds out a chance of reform. The CEO of Business Leadership South Africa, which represents the very largest companies in the country, effectively accused the DA of instigating political instability that makes investors nervous.
Is it not ANC policies, firing Whitfield and not acting as a coalition partner that can really be trusted, that leads to investor nervousness?
Goes along to get along
Big business goes along to get along with the ANC, which means it is compromised when it comes to lecturing the DA on what it should do.
The DA should not take advice from big business on whether to stay in or pull out the GNU, or try to second-guess the voters. Far better to look at what the DA is really getting out of the arrangement itself. Key is whether the arrangement is making the country better off with economic reforms. The answer to that is ‘No’.
The doomsday comrade parties, the Economic Freedom Fighters and uMkhonto we Sizwe, are being kept out of government, but not all their policies. There are dire risks if these parties enter government, but the DA is getting very little out of the current arrangement.
The DA has thrown down a number of markers, and matters might calm after the NEC has met. The DA could remove itself from the GNU and only offer conditional support.
It might be best to remain part of the GNU for the moment, but at least the DA should have the guts to quit if necessary.
*Jonathan Katzenellenbogen is a Johannesburg-based freelance journalist.
*This article was originally published by the Daily Friend and has been republised with permission.