MANDY WIENER: Welcome to the reality of a power-sharing arrangement
When the ideal of a GNU was proposed by the ANC, it was presented as a nation-building, unifying ideal reminiscent of the 1994 GNU, now it is having to deal with the reality of what that ideal means on a very practical level, writes Mandy Wiener.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana delivered the national budget for 2025 in the National Assembly on 12 March 2025. Picture: Phando Jikelo/Parliament
One of the ironies of this whole Democratic Alliance (DA) vs African National Congress (ANC) budget brouhaha is that in the week after the 29 May elections last year, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana was in the firing line for ostensibly trying to manoeuver an ANC-DA coalition deal.
He was identified in media reports as one of the key proponents of a shadow grouping of current and former ministers within the ANC NEC pushing for a grand coalition with the then official opposition.
At the time, he denied the allegations as "baseless gossip".
The reality of what the Finance Minister may have been pushing for is now playing out and he won’t necessarily like it. Although the ANC and DA are not theoretically in a grand coalition, some of the features of the arrangement are very much like one.
By virtue of the ANC dramatically losing electoral support from 57% to 40% in the national government elections last year, it is having to accept what that actually means.
Going into the Government of National Unity, the DA was adamant that it would not be swallowed up by the ANC and simply bullied into submission.
In the budget standoff, the DA has seen an opportunity to flex its muscle after a series of political losses. Within the DA, the leadership of the party will be under significant pressure from the Federal Executive in light of the National Health Insurance, BELA and Expropriation Acts having been pushed through.
On Wednesday afternoon, ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula posted on X that "Steenhuisen was so clear: stop implementing transformative laws if you want us to support the Budget! This is what their objection is about, not a concern on the poor! This is crazy stuff."
The insinuation is that the DA attempted to leverage the passing of the budget by trying to get the ANC to compromise on issues outside the budget, such as the Expropriation Act.
The Finance Minister has suggested that the DA’s problem was not with the VAT increase, it was about the fact that they had lost political battles and were now looking for political leverage. However, the implications of this within Cabinet were problematic.
"They have compromised Treasury by saying this is an ANC budget. What they have then done - which is bad for the GNU - is constitute themselves as an opposition within the GNU,” Godongwana told a News24 breakfast on Thursday morning. This "breaches all the protocols of the Cabinet."
Who can blame the DA for looking for political leverage after months of being sidelined and the ANC riding roughshod over GNU partners? It is also naïve for the Minister to suggest the DA ministers should refrain from prioritising their party as they are now in cabinet. This suggests a fundamental cultural chasm between the two parties.
Underpinning this disagreement is the stark reality that neither the ANC nor the DA can afford to collapse the GNU over half a percentage point VAT increase.
The DA would argue that it is not looking to leverage power or politicise the budget but rather that intentions are more noble. As DA strategist Ryan Coetzee tweeted, "What is going on here isn’t a fight over a 1% VAT increase. It is a battle over the future of SA’s economy, and the life chances of the South African people. Because if we don’t turn the economy around a VAT increase is going to be the least of our problems!"
Another irony, as colleague Carol Paton pointed out, is that the DA has been vocal about not supporting the budget when in fact the Finance Minister included a key tenant of the DA’s push to commit to review spending and the budget is relatively pro-growth and jobs which the DA is also arguing for. That expenditure review will also now sit with Operation Vulindlela, which the DA has been very supportive of.
What we are seeing playing out now is the practical reality of the power sharing agreement reached between the GNU parties in June last year.
The two heads of the crucial portfolio committees that now need to consider the budget legislation are both leaders of former opposition parties, now in the GNU. Rise Mzansi’s Songezo Zibi and BOSA’s Mmusi Maimane will lead that process. The Division of Revenue Bill and the Appropriations Bill will now have to be approved or amended within a very clear time period.
By not passing the tabled budget, it now means the process is going to be messy and exhausting. It is certainly not ideal.
But there are positives to draw from this standoff. The budget was not merely pushed through Parliament, a substantial expenditure review is on the cards, VAT was decreased from 2% to 0,5% (potentially 1% of two years) and democracy has withstood this new political challenge.
When the ideal of a GNU was proposed by the ANC, it was presented as a nation-building, unifying ideal reminiscent of the 1994 GNU. We had visions of a unicorn draped in rainbow colours as the ANC chose to chase the sun and bring political parties together.
Now it is having to deal with the reality of what that ideal means on a very practical level. Either it will have to accept that reality or it will have to win a majority in government at the next general election in four years’ time if it wants to go back to the way things were.
The DA is being accused of holding government ransom and putting its own interests before the country’s. If it’s going to sustain this power sharing arrangement, it is also going to have to learn to dance with the ANC and compromise.