The Democratic Alliance (DA) has expressed discontent with the transformation of South Africa. A member of the #NotWithTheDA campaign, which opposes a coalition with the African National Congress (ANC), stated this on Thursday.
“The DA has voiced its dissatisfaction with transformation in our country for the past 30 years,” said ANC member and activist Thuthukile Zuma, who is the daughter of former president Jacob Zuma.
She said the DA was opposed to every “progressive piece of legislation” in Parliament.
“Their policies are about stalling transformation in this country and just two months ago, they were burning our national flag,” she stated.
“It is not me registering discontent, but the DA has registered discontent with the transformation of this country because they stand for white interest.”
The group was protesting outside the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg, Ekurhuleni, where the ANC was holding a special NEC meeting to discuss coalitions, premier candidates, and the way forward.
The Not In Our Name movement was protesting, calling on the ANC not to get into bed with the DA.
ANC member Esethu Hasane said it did not make sense for the ruling party to go into a coalition with the DA especially after it opposed economic transformation for too long.
He said the voters spoke at the polls and told the ANC that it was not doing well.
“The cry out there is that the ANC has not done well to transform the economy and to share this country’s wealth equally,” he said.
“If people are saying that, and you know who opposes economic transformation and redistribution which is the DA,” Hasane said.
“It does not make sense to me that you go and work with them when you know they will resist more of such policies to a point where you as the ANC is cannibalised to a zero and they live out of your carcass.
Addressing the protest, ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula said the protest happening on the basis of disinformation.
“The ANC has never said it was going into coalition with the DA,” he said.
Mbalula said they were going to look into the outcomes of the elections as it did not “favour the ANC”.
“We don’t have outright majority, even in this instance, we have lower numbers,” he said.
“We have engaged with everybody and we are still talking to others, even smaller parties because we want to bring everybody on board,” he said.
“South Africans want us to work together for their sake. We have said as the ANC we will prioritise the people. We don’t want instability, we want a stable government.”
The ANC also has a keen interest to ensure that their manifesto was implemented, Mbalula said.
The Not In Our Name movement broke into a song “Asifuni iDA” meaning they don’t want the ANC-DA coalition.
Responding to the question that the ANC-DA coalition made sense because they represented a majority of the voters, Zuma said: “They don’t know maths.
“What we know is the ANC is the biggest party in South Africa and so we are saying the ANC must form a government of national unity but they can’t form government with a political party that is diametrically opposed to what they stand for and where they want to take this country,” Zuma said.
“Because that government is no government at all.”
Zuma said that they had full confidence in the ANC leadership as they were meeting to deliberate on various issues. She said the group was there to register their concerns.
She said they would embrace the decisions that come out of the meetings and deliberations of party leadership.
“We are just saying, a decision cannot include the DA.”
Meanwhile, Mbalula told the media that the party's NEC would, on Thursday, determine the makeup of the cabinet following the elections.
He said President Cyril Ramaphosa would make an announce at around 6pm on Thursday.
“This process requires transparency and at the same time to tell you exactly what as the ANC we seek to do for South Africa post the elections,” Mbalula said.
“They will give further mandate to the team that is dealing with the important matter of how we are going to constitute government post elections.”
IOL Politics