Lack of dialogue threatening the GNU — Mulder

Freedom Front Plus (FF+) leader Dr Corné Mulder has said that South Africa’s Government of National Unity (GNU), which his party is currently a part of, is in serious trouble due to a lack of communication between parties.

“Let me try to put it this way. If I explained exactly how the GNU should function, I can assure you it operates in the opposite way,” he told Newsday in an interview.

“For example, since I became the leader of the FF+ on 22 February this year, the leaders of the GNU have met twice. One was a Zoom call in March to discuss the National Dialogue, and the other was in May to discuss matters about the GNU.”

The coalition currently consists of ten parties, with the African National Congress (ANC) and the Democratic Alliance (DA) holding 246 of the coalition’s 287 seats.

Other parties include the FF+, Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), Patriotic Alliance (PA), United Democratic Movement (UDM), Rise Mzansi, Al Jama-ah, GOOD, and the Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC).

After the coalition’s initial formation, all parties were assigned positions as ministers or their deputies in the executive.

The only party that is not a member of the executive is Rise Mzansi, which joined later on but opted for a SCOPA chairperson position.

Mulder said that while the GNU leaders have only met a few times in the past six months, the executive meets two to four times a month to discuss government business.

However, he argues that these meetings are not sufficient to address the coalition’s concerns, as not all parties and leaders are represented. 

For instance, when the FF+ joined the GNU, its then-leader Dr Pieter Groenewald took the correctional services ministerial position given to the party.

However, he has since stepped down as leader and been replaced by Mulder.

“The moment I became leader, we informed the President that from this moment on, if you want to talk about my party, you have to talk to me, and not Groenewald,” said the FF+ leader.

“So the fact that he doesn’t is unfortunate and one of the reasons I believe the GNU is in serious trouble.”

All the other parties’ leaders, except Rise Mzansi’s, are present in Cyril Ramaphosa’s executive.

The FF+ leader argues that while one member of the GNU holds the position of the President, they must not assume this authoritative role when engaging with their coalition.

“They should act as the leader of their party and meet on an equal footing with the leaders of the other parties around the table and discuss policy and whatever needs to be addressed,” he says.

“The GNU does not have that at the moment. That’s why we’ve met twice.”

‘Let’s sit around a fire and learn more about each other’

Mulder pointed to the importance of communication between coalition members and the failure to operationalise several mechanisms created by the declaration of intent, which he says is why he believes the alliance “is in serious trouble.”

“If you want to have a successful coalition where people buy into the same process, you have to have continuous communication and interaction between the leaders because the leaders take responsibility towards their parties,” he said.

“If you don’t have that, it will break down.”

He provided the example of the GNU’s clearing-house mechanism that tends to conflict within the coalition. However, the committee responsible for this, chaired by the Deputy President, has not met once this year.

This is despite the GNU encountering numerous instances of conflict caused by stark ideological and policy differences, such as the budget vote and relations with the US. 

The clearing house mechanism was used to previously to help resolve the impasse concerning the contentious Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill.

“We met at the end of last year to try and find a way forward regarding the BELA Bill before the President signed it. This committee has met three times regarding the Bill, and that’s it,” the FF+ leader said.

Mulder says that parties within the coalition have called for more frequent meetings to ensure everyone is on the same page. 

“When the ten leaders met in Pretoria earlier this year, we told the president that we need a bospraat (bush talk),” he said.

“Let’s get together on a farm somewhere as leaders, spend some time together, sit around a campfire, have a braai, and learn more about each other as individuals because if we don’t know each other, how do you think we’re going to operate?”

He says the president said it was a good idea. However, nothing has come of the suggestion, and the coalition continues to stumble from one crisis to the next.

Participation not unconditional

Mulder says that he was in favour of joining the GNU when the party was presented with the opportunity, despite then-leader Groenewald’s objections.

“I said that if decisions are taken around a specific table that has an impact on South Africa and your own constituency and you have an opportunity to participate, you should go and play your role around that table,” he told Newsday.

“If you can participate and also get things done and things that decided that uh is to the benefit of your own constituency, go and use the opportunity even if you don’t have all the power.”

However, he says that his party’s participation in the coalition is not unconditional and that it is not in it for the positions in the executive.

“If it becomes clear that we are merely co-opted to create the impression that we are part of something larger and there’s nothing there’s no real influence that we can have, the I need to ask myself, what are we doing here,” he said.

“I can assure you at this stage we are under huge pressure from our constituency to walk away.”