The DA is failing dismally

The DA performed much better as the official opposition than it did in its self-appointed role as the party that would galvanise the government of national unity (GNU).

The same is true of its leader, John Steenhuisen. Its ministers have executed their duties with a zeal that puts their ANC counterparts to shame. But its larger strategy has fallen flat.

The DA believed this link-up for the greater good with its former foe was a prerequisite for achieving the economic lift-off that would drag in its slipstream a fleet of benefits, such as revitalised institutions. It is self-evident that nothing like that has happened.

ALSO READ: Steenhuisen has made a bad situation worse with tactical blunders

Instead, the DA has been house-trained by the ANC. It barks furiously and still strains at the leash on occasion, but it will sit up and beg on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s command. While I don’t share the disdain of many journalists for Steenhuisen, some of the criticism is deserved.

As DA leader, he has misjudged every single power play made by the ANC, from accepting a poor partnership deal at the outset to being goaded into making meaningless threats that he has been forced to back off from.

Every passing week brings a new reversal for the DA. This week, its support ensured that the Appropriation Bill for all government departments was passed at its first reading. It’s about as complete a climbdown as can be imagined for a party that had threatened to block the Bill.

The plan had been that this would be the DA riposte to Ramaphosa’s sudden firing of the DA’s Andrew Whitfield, Steenhuisen had been incandescent.

“If this situation is not corrected, it will go down as the greatest political mistake in modern SA history,” he warned parliament.

On the face of it, it was a brilliantly simple move. The DA would counter the ANC by singling out only departments headed by ministers implicated in corruption.

ALSO READ: Steenhuisen warned of ‘insubordination’ over national dialogue stance

Unless Ramaphosa sacked those ministers within 48 hours, the DA would join the uMkhonto weSizwe party and the department of economic development in voting down their departmental budgets, thus stymying the passage of the Appropriation Bill.

The DA, said Steenhuisen, would vote against the departmental budgets of Nobuhle Nkabane (higher education), Thembi Simelane (human settlements) and “corruption-accused ANC ministers”. The DA would also withdraw from the National Dialogue, no doubt the DA was chortling at its genius.

At least three “compromised” ANC politicians would bite the dust and the DA would be perceived to be guardians of governmental integrity.

It didn’t work out quite like that. Ramaphosa did indeed fire Nkabane, but it had more to do with ANC self-interest than the DA ultimatum. She was already fatally politically wounded and facing cross-party, including ANC, sanctions from the parliamentary ethics committee.

ALSO READ: ‘Long overdue’ – Opposition parties welcome Nkabane’s removal

And in a real up-yours, Ramaphosa didn’t fire any of the other DA-named ministers. This turned out to be just another dismally misjudged power play by Steenhuisen.

But Steenhuisen has hinted that he has one card to play: proposing a motion of no confidence. This would not mean a general election – constitutionally, the earliest this could happen is in 2027 – but if it succeeded, Ramaphosa would have to resign.

In that kind of scramble, because the ANC is so deeply divided, the DA could, at last, influence the direction of the state by choosing the person at the top, rather than merely lending the party their votes. It’s time for the DA to etch a steely red line.

READ NEXT: ‘Right-wing nexus’: Presidency cautions South Africans against the DA