The ANC must stop acting like a majority party

South Africa’s Government of National Unity (GNU) will struggle to deliver meaningful change unless the African National Congress (ANC) stops acting as if it still governs alone, says Professor William Gumede.

Gumede is the founder and executive chairperson of the Democracy Works Foundation, an associate professor at the Wits School of Governance, and a multiple-time best-selling author.

Speaking to Newsday, he said the ANC’s approach to the GNU remains rooted in one-party dominance, even though it now shares power with multiple partners.

In the 2024 general elections, the ANC lost its three-decade-long majority, receiving 40% of the vote.

It formed a coalition, or ‘GNU’, with the Democratic Alliance (DA), Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), Patriotic Alliance (PA), Vryheidsfront Plus (VF+), and five other smaller parties.

Together, they occupy 287 of the 400 seats in the National Assembly. The ANC and the DA, which received 22% of the vote, hold 85% of the seats of the coalition bloc.

However, various parties within the GNU have complained about the ANC’s dismissive nature to the ideas, inputs and concerns of their coalition partners.

“The ANC has been in power for the last 30 years, and the ANC’s political culture has been a culture of majority-based decision-making,” Gumede said.

“In majority-based decision-making, ANC party positions have become the country’s positions. ANC ideologies have become the country’s policies.”

“To govern effectively,” Gumede continued, “governing parties, even if they have large majorities, must govern in the interest of the citizens and the country: not in the interest of their parties or ideologies or the leaders.”

The GNU offers a “governance mechanism and a governance structure to lift growth and to deal with our economic problems,” but it has not been used effectively.

“The ANC perhaps struggles, while being in the GNU, to transform that majority-based decision-making culture into a consensus-based culture.”

“Governments of national unity or grand coalitions cannot work effectively unless the decision-making in these structures is collaborative, consensual, and not majority-based,” Gumede explained.

“Because the ANC has not genuinely adopted a consensus-based decision-making, the GNU has struggled to get out of gear.”

Consensus-based decision making

Gumede said he had advised various non-ANC partners during the GNU’s formation to insist on consensus-based decision-making.

This was even if it meant “getting fewer ministerial portfolios,” because that principle was “much more important than ministerial positions.”

He argued that consensus governance has been central to countries that achieved rapid growth after crises, including Germany, Japan, and South Korea.

“If you look after the Second World War, the countries that have done very, very well — whether it is Japan, South Korea, or Mauritius — used consensus-based decision-making,” he said.

“Consensus-based decision-making looks at what is in the interest of the country, what is in the interest of the largest number of people, not what is in the interest of the majority.”

He said the ANC’s reluctance to share decision-making power, particularly with economic and foreign policy, threatens the coalition’s survival.

“If the ANC continues to insist on the ANC’s party and ideological policies being the country’s policies, the GNU will become unsustainable,” he warned.

By trying to bypass the GNU partners when it disagrees over policy, as was done when it got support from non-coalition partners for the budget, “the ANC undermines the functioning of the GNU and also will torpedo the GNU.”

For Gumede, the key shift needed is simple: “This is not an ANC government. This is a multi-party government, and the ANC’s policies are not GNU policies, they cannot be GNU policies. They must be multi-party policies.”

He said this change in mindset must also extend to economic and transformation policy. “We have to re-imagine what transformation means and what transformation policies are now,” he said.

“The first part of transformation policies must be pro-growth. If we don’t have growth, we will never be able to transform anything.”

Ultimately, Gumede believes the GNU could be the ideal platform for recovery, if the ANC changes how it governs.

“The GNU brings together the diversity of political parties, ideas, and capacities,” he said. “But for it to work, the ANC must stop thinking that it is still the majority party.”

Watch Professor William Gumede’s full interview with Newsday