EDITORIAL: It's game over for the DA in the GNU

THE DA now has little to no ground to argue against the perception that the ANC has reduced it to a mere bystander in the so-called Government of National Unity (GNU). 

That is why President Cyril Ramaphosa can fire a DA deputy minister from his executive without being concerned about the political implications for his decision. 

From the start, the ANC has always been firmly in control of the direction the government takes despite failing to secure enough votes to govern the country as a single party in last year’s elections.

Ramaphosa knows all too well that the DA’s desperation to remain in government runs so deep that it will not retaliate with severe action even when he acts against DA members in the executive.   

The DA was always going to find it difficult to impose itself in the GNU because it entered the coalition government for the wrong reasons.

Its stated objective of keeping the EFF and Zuma’s MK Party out of government plays into the ANC’s hands.  ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula’s utterances that the government won’t collapse even if the DA leaves the GNU should be seen as a declaration that the DA’s involvement in the GNU is immaterial.

Just like DA  leader John Steenhuisen’s announcement that his party, including ministers serving in Ramaphosa’s Cabinet, will not take part in the upcoming National Dialogue. The DA must leave the GNU with whatever little pride it still has.

Its role in opposition benches was more effective than it is in this current government. The past 12 months have proved this. Almost all the policies and Bills it opposed remain firmly in place and some of them will be implemented on behalf of the ANC by their ministers. 

Leaving the GNU will allow it to make a head start in campaigning to win some of the key metros that remain hung. It’s there that it should demonstrate its governing strength. 

It can find inspiration from renowned Pan-Africanist Professor Patrick Lumumba’s words when he correctly points out that:  “No  matter how good you are…if you stay for too long, you spoil it. A good dancer must know when to leave  the stage.”

CAPE TIMES