Steenhuisen stands firm against Mbeki's call to join National Dialogue

A war of words has ensued between former president Thabo Mbeki and DA leader John Steenhuisen over the withdrawal of the DA from the National Dialogue. 

The DA last weekend announced its withdrawal from the National Dialogue, just days after President Cyril Ramaphosa fired former Trade and Industry deputy minister Andrew Whitfield for travelling to the US without presidential permission.

Whitfield’s departure has rocked the Government of National Unity (GNU) with the DA threatening to leave the arrangement but later back-tracking.

Ramaphosa accused the DA of turning its back on South Africans and lacking commitment to core democratic values.

Ramaphosa said the National Dialogue would continue without the DA's participation, emphasising that the dialogue is not a party-political event but a national platform for all South Africans. 

"It's the poverty of adherence to good principles for a party to walk away from the people of South Africa," Ramaphosa said.

"Nothing is wrong with the dialogue. It will continue without Democratic Alliance involvement, Ramaphosa told reporters on Friday.

Steenhuisen, speaking on the sidelines at the Union Buildings, criticised the government's reliance on "corrupt and incompetent individuals" to implement South Africa's development plans. 

"If you're going to rely on those people to be the ones implementing your plans and your decisions, it's going to end up just like every other issue, every other talk-shop that’s happened for the last 20 years," Steenhuisen said. 

"People will still be living in abject poverty. Unemployment will still be unacceptably high, Steenhuisen said.

Former President Thabo Mbeki also weighed in on the issue, writing an 11-page open letter to Steenhuisen.

Mbeki expressed disappointment with the DA's decision to withdraw from the National Dialogue, saying it was "misplaced and very strange".

"I assume that you agree with what your Federal Chairperson has said about the National Dialogue," Mbeki wrote.

He criticised the party for its decision to withdraw from South Africa’s upcoming National Dialogue, calling the move “misplaced and very strange indeed” and accusing the DA of acting “against its own very direct interests".

DA Federal Chair Helen Zille went further, suggesting the dialogue was merely “a cover for the ANC’s 2026 election campaign,” adding that without DA participation, “the whole thing becomes a sham, a hollow exercise".

“It is very good that, at last, Ms Helen Zille has openly expressed her eminently arrogant and contemptuous view of the masses of the people, that they cannot think and plan their future correctly, without the DA!,'' said Mbeki.

In a written response to Mbeki’s open letter, Steenhuisen said the DA would not participate in the National Dialogue, describing it as an “expensive talk shop”.

“You sought my indulgence and now I must ask that you commit time for me to explain the DA's decision to stay away from yet another enormously expensive process that will predictably involve a lot of talking, but do nothing to advance open, transparent and corruption-free governance that South Africans so desperately desire,” Steenhuisen said.

Ramaphosa will be calling a National Convention on August 15, which will set the agenda for the National Dialogue.

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