The ANC has welcomed the parties who have joined the Government of National Unity (GNU) and has called on those outside the fold to join in and help move the country forward.
In a statement on Monday, the party said it is confident that the discussions on the formation of a national unity government will be concluded before President-elect Cyril Ramaphosa’s inauguration on Wednesday.
This comes as five parties including the ANC, DA, IFP, the GOOD Party and the Patriotic Alliance are set to finalise their partnership ahead of Wednesday’s inauguration.
The collective represents 273 seats in the 400 seats in the National Assembly.
However, the governing party has indicated that it continues to engage other political parties in a bid to make the GNU as inclusive as possible.
“Discussions with other parties are ongoing in the spirit of inclusivity. The ANC once again takes this opportunity to invite political parties that resolved to define themselves outside the efforts to reconsider and join the GNU,” the ANC said.
Party secretary-general Fikile Mbalula told the media that in spite of political differences between parties, the country’s democracy is maturing.
“We have made some major breakthroughs by electing a Parliament after the elections. Despite our differences and despite opposition from within, we have shown maturity to the world that South Africa indeed is not a failed democracy.
“It is maturing and it is at the level of an advanced democracy. In the African continent and the world, Nelson Mandela was smiling on us yesterday that the vision set in 1994 as a foundation of moving South Africa forward in the manner which he has done in that particular moment is still alive even today,” he said.
On Sunday, leader of uMkhonto weSizwe Jacob Zuma, and South African Rainbow Alliance (Sara) leader Colleen Makhubele both slammed the GNU as a betrayal of the people.
“Today is a sombre moment in our history. It is a truly defining moment for this nation,” she said.
“In the same light, we want to implore the ruling party, the ANC, to admit that whatever their intentions were for the 2024 elections and the so-called Government of National Unity (GNU), they must admit to this truth and this reality that things went horribly wrong for the majority of black people,” she said.
Zuma described the GNU as nonsense, saying that the political conditions had changed since the formation of the first GNU in 1994.
“They want to make us as a country at war and they are giving us this GNU. But there is no government of national unity in South Africa,” he said.
“What we have here is a white-led unholy alliance between the DA and the ANC of (President Cyril) Ramaphosa. It is sponsored by big business, and it's for the benefit of the markets and not the people,” he said.
Sara, alongside the MK Party, has joined other parties under the newly-formed progressive caucus of parties, which wants the recent election results set aside.
As things stand, the new GNU will include the DA and IFP, that have agreed to form a collective government following the recent elections which for the first time took the ANC to just 40%.
Speaking on Jacaranda FM, ANC national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri, said the ANC is happy with the speed with which the various political parties were able to find common ground on some of the issues.
“We are comfortable that the level and the speed with which these cordial engagements have been taking place will result in a final stage, come the inauguration and days after the inauguration.
“Remember that the president still has the power to appoint whoever he appoints into various portfolios in government,” she said.
The Star