Today marks one-hundred days since the formation of South Africa’s Government of National Unit (GNU), a coalition made of the African National Congress (ANC) and several opposition parties, including the neo-liberal, right-leaning and majority-White Democratic Alliance (DA). The coalition was formed after the ANC, which has ruled the country since the fall of apartheid in 1994, failed to garner an outright majority in the 29th May general elections. Many were surprised by the ANC’s pick of coalition partners, especially the DA. The two parties have starkly different ideological positions.
The ANC has for decades postured as a leftist political organisation on a mission to dismantle the apartheid-era political, social and economic systems that have prevented Black South Africans from accessing economic opportunities. The DA, on the other hand, is widely seen as the home of White South Africans, the beneficiaries of the legacy of apartheid-era policies. The party has, on numerous occasions, opposed the adoption and implementation of Black empowerment policies designed to reverse the economic marginalisation of Black people.
For instance, the DA is against the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Act, a policy designed by the ANC to increase the participation of Black South Africans in the economy. The party has also pushed for freezes on any increases to the minimum wage, a position that, if implemented, will most affect Black people, as they form the bulk of people in minimum-wage jobs.
The foreign policies of the two parties are also on opposite sides of the political spectrum. They disagree on almost every issue, ranging from the war in Ukraine and the Israeli onslaught on Gaza to the question of which economic bloc South Africa should work with.
The differences in policy positions have resulted in the two parties constantly clashing during their first hundred days together in a government that many see as a marriage of convenience put together to protect the interests of the country’s capitalist class. Here are some areas where the two ‘bedfellows’ do not see eye to eye.
Sources:
https://www.politicsweb.co.za/politics/anc-in-full-support-of-sas-case-against-israel-in-
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/south-african-parliament-passes-motion-to-close-israeli-embassy/3060928
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/zionist-semantics-in-south-africa-democratic-alliance-leopard-will-not-change-its-spots-on-palestine/
https://www.da.org.za/2023/08/iran-and-saudi-arabias-admission-creates-a-brics-where-south-africa-does-not-belong
https://www.da.org.za/2023/10/anc-government-blows-r180-million-on-brics-talk-shop
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/5/5/south-africas-opposition-leader-goes-to-ukraine-for-fact-finding
https://www.da.org.za/2023/02/exercise-mosi-ii-south-africa-will-be-the-useful-idiot
https://www.politicsweb.co.za/politics/nmw-hike-will-deepen-sas-unemployment-crisis–da
https://www.da.org.za/2024/09/a-national-minimum-wage-hike-will-deepen-south-africas-unemployment-crisis
https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/south
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd9d979k211o
https://www.da.org.za/2024/09/bela-da-continues-to-prepare-for-court-action
https://www.da.org.za/2024/05/da-files-public-service-commission-complaint-against-nhi
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1030v3p1r8o
2 Comments
Like Chris Hedges said in one of his lectures. You either serve the interests of privilege or power or you serve truth and justice. Both these parties have been perceived as serving different class interests but…
Unfortunately, and with great respect to the research put into this piece, LONG gone are the days when the ANC serves truth and justice.
They lost that claim when they signed an IMF loan before 1994 committing our country to liberal capitalism, which would i. see the old racial and class inequities remain in place and be exacerbated for decades, ii. would force us into the global debt net that keeps us beholden to the self-interests of larger, dominant economies, often of the global North. And then they have further collared our country with 2-3 more IMF loans that they took out in the last few years, which of course come attached with terms and conditions of how we are to govern our country and economy. So there goes sovereignty. And that is one of the reasons I suspect, as Matt Kennard revealed, the ANC was declaring in mining indabas that they will never nationalise our mineral resources, despite us having some of the highest global levels of manganese and platinum. Further to this, the neoliberal GEAR policy of development from Mbeki’s days in the 1990s was a failure. We have experienced serious capital flight (abuse of tax avoidance and tax evasion), price inflation on the back of market dominance and monopolisation amongst other things (for example, we had special laws put in place since the ’90s for the protection of Monsanto’s interests in the country and they’re a dominant force in farming, we have had statements made by the Competition Commission about the impact of market dominance amongst commerical farmers) and we have seen workers suffer tremendously under the ANC policy pact with DA corporate supporters: below inflation wages in both the corporate and public sector. In 2018, we were ranked as having the fourth highest wage gap between executives and average workers, following only countries like the US and the UK. Absolute disgrace! That’s over and above the murder of labour unionists like Malibongwe or members of land justice movements like Abahlali baseMjondolo or environmental activists like Fikile Ntshangase.
The GNU isn’t on shaky ground. They’re the same two parties that has dominant power as ruling and opposition at the start, they are the same two liberal capitalist fans that dragged us down this road. And the same two that are very good at politicking but not good at actually delivering a reimagined, just South Africa that honours working people (most of whom are black but include other racialised people too).
We await a time when leaders care about full truth and just systems that produce just outcomes.
Thank you for providing the sources