The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has joined the likes of COSATU, SACP and other ANC members who have called for the ANC to reconsider its potential coalition with the DA.
This comes just a day after SACP general secretary, Solly Mapaila, said the communist party, one thirds of the tripartite alliance is also opposed to the involvement of the DA in coalition talks with the governing party.
During a media briefing on Wednesday, Mapaila said any partnership with the DA would be against its anti-capitalist agenda.
“We support a minority government with GNU (Government of National Unity) features. That is the government of national unity features without the role and participation of DA-led forces. So we are clear about our anti-capitalist trajectory. The problem we face in this country is because we have pursued over the years and have been beholden to the interest of capitalists who have always threatened us about the stability of our economy,” he said.
Reacting to various calls for the ANC to resist the urge to go into bed with the DA, Numsa echoed the sentiments shared by various ANC-affiliated institutions, including some members of the party who, on Thursday morning. picketed outside the ANC’s special NEC meeting held at Birchwood Hotel.
The ANC was due to announce its final coalition partners on Thursday evening with Numsa General Secretary, Irvin Jim, saying Numsa for the first time since the dawn of democracy, the governing party lost majority control of the National Parliament, giving way to a scenario where it must co-govern either through some kind of coalition or a government of national unity.
“The ANC is between a rock and a hard place. The conservative media, investors and the business community, are pressurising it to go into a coalition with the DA. The ANC/DA coalition is preferred by the ‘markets’. If the ANC chooses the DA as a coalition partner this will be the final betrayal of the working class. Numsa rejects outright the characterisation that an alliance which excludes the DA, namely, an alliance of the EFF, ANC and MK Party as a ‘Doomsday alliance’. This characterization is blatantly racist. It reminds us of “Swart gevaar” tactics of the apartheid government. We have noted that the DA has become an expert of “swart gevaar” propaganda,“ he said.
On Tuesday, Cosatu was the first alliance partner to caution the ANC against a DA coalition with Cosatu's Solly Phetoe saying: As Cosatu, we reject an ANC/DA partnership and we reject it publicly. We reject any coalition with the DA as this is one political party that called for scrapping of the minimum wage, NHI and saying workers have too many rights."
On Thursday morning, a group of ANC members including Thuthukile Zuma and Kay Sexwale picketed outside the Birchwood Hotel calling for the ANC to reject its potential partnership with the DA.
“I am here to register my discontent for the media in pushing for an ANC and DA coalition, specifically, the right-wing media which seeks to tell us that the ANC must go into a coalition or government of national unity with the DA. They keep using the words ‘doomsday alliances’ when referring to the ANC partnering with progressive and like-minded political parties that represent the aspirations of a black and poor majority in South Africa.
“The ANC as a liberation movement which fought for so many years to free South Africans cannot be seen to be siding with the DA. We cannot find ourselves in an alliance with the people who are against ANC policies and what the ANC stands for,” said Sexwale.
However, reacting to the protests as well as a string of negative comments about the party’s potential coalition with the DA, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, said the protests were based on misinformation.
“We have said as the ANC that we will priorities the people as we want to see the manifesto to be implemented. They the people have voted for growth and jobs as well as economic growth. The protest is unfortunate and misplaced. This is the time for sober minds. We are not dealing with locking ourselves in one option but various options,” he said.
The Star