Ramaphosa tells Steenhuisen ANC will not accede to DA’s demands

President Cyril Ramaphosa has taken a tough stance in his negotiations to form a government of national unity (GNU), telling DA party leader John Steenhuisen to make up his mind about the ANC’s offer as the president wants to wrap up negotiations by the end of the week.

Ramaphosa said the DA has effectively been negotiating in bad faith, having continuously “moved the goalposts”.

The ANC has been in negotiations with several parties, including the DA, to create a government of national unity (GNU) after the 2024 national and provincial elections that failed to give a single party a clear majority.

“I need to advise that the task of setting up government is quite urgent as we cannot continue with this paralysis,” Ramaphosa said  in the letter.

“I intend to conclude all negotiations and consultations this week. Until then I remain open to having further discussions with you.”

The GNU would see some of these parties’ members appointed in Ramaphosa’s cabinet.

In the letter, dated June 25 and which TimesLIVE has seen, Ramaphosa said he had previously warned Steenhuisen that the DA’s preference to communicate through letters was problematic.

This approach opened up both parties to playing to the gallery through leaks of such letters and that discussions of such national importance should be in person, Ramaphosa said.

A letter by Helen Zille, the DA’s  federal council chair, set out that the DA would want at least 12 ministerial positions, including their deputies and that the party would prefer the position of the deputy president, failing which they would want the minister in the presidency position, which should also be assigned the leader of government business role.

She said the DA would want tenders that were issued after the proclamation of the election date to be reviewed.

Zille said the DA would want all the directors-general in departments reporting to DA ministers to be selected by panels consisting of DA ministers, submitted to the president for his approval, “and that such approval cannot reasonably be withheld”.

The DA would also want, she said, a technical “clearing house” process that would resolve differences over policy and other decisions by the government before they become a source of conflict in the cabinet.

Ramaphosa in his letter to Steenhuisen said the ANC found Zille’s letter offensive.

“I informed you that the habit of negotiating through correspondence, as adopted by the DA, can be problematic.

“It can for example make parties play to the gallery of public opinion through media leakages resulting in the loss of focus on the real substance of the negotiations,”  Ramaphosa said.

“I also informed you that we found the letter from your federal chairperson offensive, condescending, and inconsistent with the constitution.”

Ramaphosa said he had believed that the parties were closer to clinching a deal.

“Unfortunately, this has not been the case with the DA. In its recent proposals, I believe the DA has jeopardised the foundation of setting up a government of national unity by moving the goalposts in your letter of 24 June 2024 to me.

“I am truly taken aback by how you now want two more portfolios to bring the DA’s portfolios to 8,” Ramaphosa said.

He said the DA had requested that two new portfolios to be added to those it had already put forward which were the departments of sports, arts and culture, agriculture, rural development and land reform, or public service and administration.

This would take the DA ministerial positions from six to eight, which Ramaphosa says the DA believed would reflect the electoral outcomes.

“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,”  Ramaphosa said.

“I also prefer not to deal further with the legally incompetent proposals to unilaterally redetermine 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.”

Ramaphosa said that the ANC was “unable to accede to the DA’s latest proposals, nor its continuously changing interpretation of the meaning of the statement of intent and moving the goalposts”. 

He said that the DA should remember it was not the only party the ANC was negotiating with in setting up the GNU.

“As the ANC is leading the process of these negotiations, we have had to consider the proposals from other parties and therefore what we discussed yesterday stands to be reconsidered as you made clear to me that ‘you would not be able to get less than the number of portfolios the DA desired over the line with your fedex’.

“I must advise that we are continuing to hold discussions with other parties over the portfolios they could occupy as we seek to finalise the agreement on the GNU,” he said.

TimesLIVE