COALITION NATION | Ramaphosa alters Cabinet offer to DA, removes key ministry
By Pieter Du Toit
President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to announce his Cabinet soon. (Phill Magakoe/AFP)
• President Cyril Ramaphosa has made an alteration to the ANC’s offer to the DA.
• The DA will still get six ministries, but will not be able to run a key ministry.
• The ANC wants to move ahead in finalising Cabinet and has given the DA until Sunday to decide.
Negotiations between the ANC and the DA on the composition of Cabinet is headed for a confrontation after President Cyril Ramaphosa altered the terms of an earlier offer on Wednesday night, replacing a key performance ministry with a lesser portfolio that was never considered before.
According to the latest iteration of the ANC’s offer to the DA, it will still get six Cabinet seats, but an important ministry has now been taken off the list and replaced with one that has almost no budget and, by comparison, very little social or economic heft.
News24 reports that the ANC considers the offer as a “take it or leave it” final chance for the DA to join the government, and that Ramaphosa will now move ahead and announce his Cabinet as soon as possible.
Ramaphosa has also reduced the number of deputy ministries offered from seven to six, but has kept the offer of deputy minister of finance on the table. Deputy ministers, however, are not part of Cabinet. There is no certainty what the role of the deputy finance minister will be, or whether it will have specific functions and responsibilities.
The president’s response on Wednesday night has some in the DA now asking whether the ANC is negotiating in bad faith, and questioning the integrity of the offers being made to the party. There is a measure of anger and frustration about the lack of consistency in the ANC’s dealings, and doubts in some quarters about whether it is possible to reach a binding agreement with the ANC.
Ramaphosa told DA leader John Steenhuisen that he had until Sunday to decide whether to accept the offer.
The president seemingly had to fight a number of battles in his party to keep the bulk of his offer on the table, with increased resistance against a final agreement with the DA.
This follows a dramatic few days in which Ramaphosa on Tuesday made an offer to Steenhuisen of six ministries and seven deputy ministries – including the deputy finance minister. This offer, although fewer ministries than the DA wanted, was good enough for the DA.
The party communicated to Ramaphosa on Tuesday that despite it wanting at least eight Cabinet positions, it was prepared to enter government based on Ramaphosa’s offer. But Ramaphosa, surprisingly, indicated that he would have to go back to his party’s structures before the deal could be finalised.
Steenhuisen and Ramaphosa first met to discuss the composition of the Cabinet last Friday, after which the president made an offer of three cabinet positions. Steenhuisen rejected the offer on the same day. On Saturday, Ramaphosa made a revised offer of six ministries, as well as a number of deputy ministries.
The DA on Sunday responded with a letter, signed by Helen Zille, the DA’s federal council chairperson, proposing a range of ministries in every Cabinet cluster. The party also said that given the size of its support, it should be entitled to the position of deputy president. If Ramaphosa was not willing to accede to their request, the DA should then get a ministry in the Presidency.
This letter led to widespread outrage after it was leaked on Monday, with the ANC decrying the DA’s “outrageous” demands in a statement. Ramaphosa also used his newsletter on Monday to admonish the DA without naming it, and various ANC leaders appeared on television on Tuesday slamming the party.
Despite interactions between Ramaphosa and Steenhuisen being cordial, the revised offer to the DA – after the DA had accepted the offer made by the ANC – has now strained the relationship between the parties. The “much less attractive offer” for some in the DA is indicative of the ANC’s unwillingness to share power, despite the results of the election.
The DA’s position has been that negotiations about Cabinet positions do not hinge on the number of portfolios, but rather on the seniority of the ministries on offer, and its ability to effect positive social and economic change.
The DA will on Thursday morning decide how to proceed with the negotiations, and how to respond to the ANC.
Pieter du Toit | The ANC, at 40%, must accept its new reality and agree to terms with the DA
The ANC and the DA will now have to learn to work with each other in a GNU. (Gallo Images)
The amount of sympathy for the ANC because of the DA’s “arrogance“, and the levels of amnesia about who the DA are dealing with on the other side are astonishing, writes Pieter du Toit.
The results of the recent national and provincial elections dealt a crippling blow to the ANC. It was reduced from a party with a majority of 57% to one that barely scraped to over 40%.
Poor governance was the overriding major factor. The party has become synonymous with corruption and thievery, leading to declining delivery of services and worsening living standards. It has also presided over weak economic growth, which has led to record levels of unemployment and poverty.
The party and its broader ecosystem have also started to fragment, brought about by ideological splits and factional conflict.
This has all contributed to the ANC’s dramatic decline, the loss of its national majority, and its significantly diminished position in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
Working with the DA
In the wake of its rejection by 60% of South African voters, it was unable to form a government and could not elect a president, nor a speaker of Parliament. It was subsequently forced to accept an offer from the DA to get President Cyril Ramaphosa over the line as head of state and help elect Thoko Didiza as speaker.
Since then, South Africa has been waiting for the Ramaphosa-led ANC, and the DA, led by John Steenhuisen, to reach a compromise in the formation of a Cabinet and government.
READ | Mbhazima Shilowa: DA’s proposal on public service doesn’t make sense in light of its cadre case
The basis for their negotiations is the statement of intent, an agreement signed on the morning of Ramaphosa’s election in the National Assembly by a voting bloc of ANC and DA MPs. This document is the framework for negotiations and interactions, and contains key principles as a point of departure.
Apart from constitutional imperatives and shared values and so on, it also sets out how decisions will be taken, and how executive bodies will be appointed. These two issues are key, because there will be matters of difference, and there needs to be a way to move beyond them.
The fair and just composition of Cabinet or provincial executives are also crucial, because the ANC wants to maintain its majority, while the DA doesn’t want to be led into an ambush where it props up a government, but has no influence.
ANC revisionism
And this is where there have been points of difference during the protracted negotiation process. Last week, shortly before the president’s inauguration and the first meeting between Ramaphosa and Steenhuisen to discuss the Cabinet, the ANC started to reinterpret the statement of intent, particularly the clause about representation in Cabinet.
Since then, the ANC has maintained that the appointment of the Cabinet is purely a presidential prerogative – which it is – and that the ANC cannot be dictated to by anyone, least of all a statement of intent. This is despite the text in the document that both parties agreed on and the communication between the parties.
Subsequently, there have been elevated levels of outrage among many in the ANC and its allied commentators, lambasting the DA for its perceived arrogance after it provided options to Ramaphosa for the Cabinet and DA representation in the Presidency.
READ | Mcebisi Ndletyana: Unlikely Alliances – The cost of an ANC-DA breakdown is too high a price to pay
On Tuesday night, Ronald Lamola and Nomvula Mokonyane, both senior ANC leaders, made some extraordinary statements on television about the state of affairs. First, Lamola said there simply could not be any DA ministers in the Cabinet. And then Mokonyane, who has seen her reputation rehabilitated from her days as a Bosasa braai pack beneficiary, added that no “self-respecting party” could accede to the DA’s demands.
These demands, apart from Cabinet postings in accordance with the statement of intent, include a review of tenders awarded in the final days of the previous government, as well as an undertaking that the DA will take the lead in the appointment of directors-general in departments it will head.
The howls of incredulity and disgust from all quarters were such that you’d swear the DA was barging in on a benevolent government run by Mother Teresa, with Christ’s 12 disciples as ministers, and not the party of state capture, cadre deployment and misrule.
What did you expect?
The demands the DA have made are squarely in line with the statement of intent, both in letter and spirit, and certainly in line with a desire to ensure good and efficient governance – something the ANC-in-government has patently not championed over the last years.
Both sides agreed that they would not negotiate in public – but only one side sent senior operatives to television to attack the other.
And both sides tried to defend their corner in the negotiations – but only one side is trying to bend the statement of intent to gain an unfair advantage.
It is clearly exceedingly difficult for the ANC to accept that it cannot govern alone anymore and that it will have to cede executive power. It quite possibly also believes that negotiating with the DA is beneath it and found it appalling that the DA didn’t fold when it made its first offer of three ministers.
But that’s what happens when you lose an election. It’s what happens when 30 years of power lead to hubris and entitlement, and when the belief that you are the only legitimate vehicle for South Africans’ political aspirations starts to crumble.
The ANC must sooner or later accept that its president was elected head of state, thanks to an agreement with the DA. Effectively, Ramaphosa would not have been president had Steenhuisen not instructed his caucus to vote for him.
That’s the reality. As grim as the cadres think it might be.
Now, they must move on, agree to terms and start rebuilding what 15 years of capture and cadre deployment have destroyed.
COALITION NATION | Ramaphosa’s scathing ‘Dear John’ letter to Steenhuisen
Natasha Marrian
ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa has written a scathing letter to DA leader John Steenhuisen. (Darren Stewart and Lulama Zenzile/Gallo Images/Die Burger)
- GNU talks between the DA and ANC are at breaking point.
- The DA is set to walk after the ANC withdrew the Trade and Industry post.
- Ramaphosa bemoaned the DA’s attitude during the negotiations.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has written a scathing letter to DA leader John Steenhuisen, accusing him of “moving the goalposts” in negotiations with the ANC and wanting to set up an illegal “parallel government”, which would operate outside the parameters of the Constitution.
News24 has seen the letter, penned on 25 June.
Talks to form a government of national unity (GNU) have hit another major hurdle, with tension between the ANC and the DA again deepening after the party demanded an additional two Cabinet posts.
The letter was written after the ANC had made a final offer of six Cabinet posts. The DA then demanded two further posts, which News24 understands has angered Ramaphosa and ANC negotiators.
Ramaphosa then opted to withdraw a crucial post – Trade and Industry – from the DA’s initial offer, in response to the DA’s earlier comeback.
Ramaphosa’s letter to Steenhuisen, in his capacity as ANC president, begins by admonishing the opposition leader for insisting on conducting negotiations through written correspondence.
Ramaphosa writes:
Matters of national importance, such as these, are best conducted in face-to-face negotiations and only when both sides agree that the discussions between them have reached a level of maturity and advance should they be reduced to writing, to live up to the principle of transparency.
He noted that this could result in media leaks and parties “playing to the gallery of public opinion”, instead of holding good-faith negotiations.
Ramaphosa said he found a letter of demand by the DA’s federal executive council chairperson, Helen Zille, to be “offensive, condescending and inconsistent with the Constitution”.
He accused Steenhuisen of shifting the goalposts after the ANC presented a final offer of six key Cabinet portfolios, and the DA came back demanding eight.
He then rounded on the DA and accused the party of wanting to set up a “parallel government”, a move that would be illegal.
“I regard your approach in moving the goalposts as a continuation of what was articulated in your Federal Chair’s letter of 22 June 2024 on issues such as ‘sealed mandates’ of Ministries, through which the DA seemed to want to set up a parallel government that would operate outside the framework and parameters of the Constitution-based method and protocols of running the government of the Republic of South Africa.
“I also prefer not to deal further with the legally incompetent proposals to unilaterally re-determine contractual arrangements of directors-general and other contracts. I did inform you that I felt we should not dwell on the misguided propositions contained in that letter as paying attention to the contents of that letter would divert us from the task at hand of constituting a government of national unity.”
READ | COALITION NATION: DA to tell Ramaphosa the deal is off unless he sticks to original offer
Ramaphosa also clarified to Steenhuisen that the statement of intent, which was signed by parties to establish the GNU, did not specify that Cabinet posts should be assigned in proportion to a party’s electoral performance, which the DA had used to argue for more positions.
“Clause 16 of the statement of intent makes plain that the government of national unity shall be constituted in a manner that reflects genuine inclusiveness of all the political parties that are party to the statement of intent and are represented in the National Assembly broadly taking into account [my emphasis] the number of seats parties have in the National Assembly and the need to advance the national interest.
“The clause further provides that the president shall, in constituting the executive, take into account the electoral outcomes. These commitments are set out in full appreciation of the president retaining discretion to constitute the Cabinet – a prerogative I believe I have duly and sufficiently tempered to fulfil the commitment of the statement of intent,” Ramaphosa wrote.
In the letter, Ramaphosa emphasised the urgency of setting up a government – and informed Steenhuisen that he was open to further discussion.
This is a developing story.
Martin Plaut 