ANC's failures fuelling DA's transformation pushback

THE DA's decision to challenge the Employment Equity Amendment Act has the ANC fuming.

- PROFESSOR SIPHO SEEPE

In a strongly worded statement, the ANC accused the DA of “drifting from the spirit of the Government of National Unity and positioning itself outside the project of nation-building and shared prosperity. Transformation, equity, and diversity are not up for negotiation.”

This legal challenge follows closely on the DA and EFF’s successful bid to stop the Treasury from increasing VAT by 0.5%.

These challenges, including the DA's intention to challenge the implementation of the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act and the National Health Insurance Act, are part of a strategy to wear the ANC out by keeping it busy.

The persistent bickering between the ANC and DA is to be expected. The GNU is, after all, a marriage of inconvenience.

Neither party has ever expressed love for the other. The GNU has all the hallmarks of a marriage on the rocks.

This includes a lack of trust, public display of disrespect and contempt for each other, and lack of commitment. Both parties have tried to argue that the GNU was born out of necessity.

Having lost 22% of the vote share in six years, the ANC came into the marriage as a mortally wounded partner.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has since tried to spin this reality by arguing that the voters, “through their votes, determined that the leaders of our country should set aside their political differences and come together to overcome the severe challenges that confront our nation”.

The DA has not fallen for this nonsense. Helen Zille, the federal chairperson of the DA, could not have been blunter. She averred: “We are not in the GNU to please the ANC or anyone else.”