Songezo Zibi says the GNU is not sustainable

Songezo Zibi, the leader of Rise Mzansi and chairperson of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts, says that he does not believe the Government of National Unity (GNU) is sustainable.

This was revealed during an interview with Newsday, where he discussed the reasons why he believes South Africa’s governing coalition could collapse and when this might occur.

The GNU was formed after the African National Congress (ANC) failed to receive the majority of support following the 2024 National and Provincial Elections.

As a result, the ANC, DA, PA, IFP, VF+, GOOD, Rise Mzansi, PAC, UDM, and Al Jama-ah formed the GNU, which occupies 287 of the 400 seats in the National Assembly.

The ANC, which received 40% of the vote, and the DA, which received 22%, hold 85% of the seats of the coalition bloc.   

“Coalition politics has proven more complicated than most people expected. Getting to a common legislative and policy agenda is hard when that was not part of the coalition negotiation itself,” Zibi said.

After the election results were announced, parties had only 12 days to find coalition partners.

VF+ leader Dr Corné Mulder recently told Newsday that the coalition’s declaration of intent was not negotiated by all parties in the GNU  but rather only between the ANC and DA.

Zibi admits that his party joined the coalition late. However, it argues that there is little to unite political actors within the government who are part of the GNU. 

“You have these weaknesses, and so you cannot rely on individual ministers, Members of Parliament, and committees for success in the same way you would be able to in a collective coalition effort,” he said.

The Rise Mzansi leader explains that there was pressure from stakeholders outside of party politics, particularly from those in the private sector, for the ANC and DA to work together.

“But the manner in which this plan was conceived was naive.”

He says that within the relationship between the two parties, the DA wanted to be the only other party to partner up with the ANC so that it could have veto power.

On the other hand, the ANC wants to create options for itself by neutralising the DA’s veto power.

“So what has happened is that while the ANC makes an effort to talk to everyone else, the DA is isolated from everyone else,” he said.

“This is problematic because you don’t have the rest of the political bodies collaborating to use their leverage against the ANC, because strategically, the DA has not attempted to lead any of them.”

Zibi provided the controversial budget vote, which took place earlier in the year and included a 0.5% increase in the VAT rate. This marked a critical juncture for the coalition, as the ANC supported the budget, while the DA opposed it.

“If I were in the DA’s position, I would have approached the other political parties around us to build leverage against the ANC,” he said.

“And so the coalition is somewhat dysfunctional in that way, right? Because you’ve got all of this brinkmanship going on all the time. I don’t think it’s sustainable.”

When asked about whether he expects the coalition to stay intact until the next national elections in 2029, Zibi says it depends on the issue.

“I don’t know when it could collapse. We’ve reached the point where it depends on which issue arises. That could be next week,” he said.

“I mean, what is the straw that broke the camel’s back? Is it the NHI? It can be any number of things. So, it’s really going to be issue-based.”

Testing times

Several issues have threatened the stability and relations within the GNU since its formation in 2024, most of which concern opposing policies between the DA and ANC.

The first disagreement was the controversial Basic Education Laws Amendment Act, relating to key provisions regarding school capacity, school provisions, language of instruction, and the role of school governing bodies.

While the ANC supported the Bill, the DA and the FF+ took a firm stance against it, resulting in a standoff between the two largest parties in the GNU.

The DA initially threatened to withdraw from the coalition should the Bill be signed into law. However, the clearing house mechanism within the GNU, created for conflict resolution, helped the two parties reach a compromise. 

Another major dispute between the two parties was caused by the fiscal budget, which the DA voted against, alongside members of the GNU’s opposition coalition, the Progressive Caucus, which includes the MK Party and Economic Freedom Fighters.

Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to remove former Trade, Industry, and Competition Deputy Minister Andrew Whitfield, a member of the DA, from his position after a visit to the US, also exposed deepening divisions in the coalition.

The DA described the visit as a working visit to “stabilise diplomatic relations between South Africa and the US during this period of heightened tensions.”

However, the ANC accused the DA of “spreading disinformation abroad” and undermining South Africa’s diplomatic position.

As a result, the DA withdrew from the National Dialogue and vowed to “vote against departmental budgets for corrupt ANC ministers.”