GNU: Relations between DA and ANC are good at a national level, but not in municipalities

The relationship between the ANC and the DA is strong at the top where they cooperate peacefully, but weak at the bottom where they are at each other’s throats.

Experts believe the explanation for this is not hard to find.

It is located in a power game played by the ANC and DA to outdo each other in the power stakes, they said.

ANC pays against DA in Gauteng

Presently, the ANC is playing a merry-go-round against the DA in Gauteng, putting the stability of the government of national unity (GNU) at risk.

Independent political analyst Khanyi Magubane said the warm ANC-DA relations at national level had to do with the high stakes at the top that they want to protect.

But the lower levels had complex dynamics that they could not resolve in the short term.

“The ANC and the DA are cooperating well at national level because we have more that’s at stake there – Cabinet posts that have been filled by members of different political parties making up an administration led by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

“So everybody in the GNU is aware of the importance of making it work because there are many people who are counting on the GNU failing.

“There are constantly daggers out for them. That’s why I guess they work so hard to also prove their detractors wrong.”

Magubane said that as such, the political wrangling at a municipal level was “indicative of the parties’ inability to truly understand the importance of the role they play” at that level. In the same way they had been able to put aside their differences in the GNU.

“Up to this point, they’ve been able to work together because they are an administration,” Magubane said.

That in the Gauteng metros, City of Joburg and Tshwane, the ANC and DA were at each other’s throats is a clear example of the political contradictions emerging from their unstable relations.

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ANC uses ActionSA to try oust Tshwane’s DA-led coalition

In Tshwane, the ANC used former DA ally and now its arch-enemy, ActionSA, in a bid to oust the DA-led coalition administration in the metro.

Political economy analyst Daniel Silke said it was clear the ANC was playing political games in Gauteng against the DA.

While the ANC at the national level seemed to have embraced the GNU, it allowed its own structures to defy the spirit of the GNU agreement at provincial level in Gauteng and its metros.

“That’s the weakness of the GNU at national level.

“If it doesn’t extend to the province and to the metros in particular, where service delivery is critical, the metro then becomes contested and a space for bun fighting, corruption, cronyism, patronage and open to jockeying for positions as we’ve seen previously,” Silke said.

ActionSA has embarked on revenge against the DA in the metros.

“The ANC are taking advantage of this in using ActionSA to get past the finish line for the appointment of mayors and other senior positions.

“They are quite happy to exclude the DA in the municipalities and the excos as well.”

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Parties need to get lower levels in line, says analyst

According to Magubane, the DA and the ANC had to convince their representatives in the lower levels to do the right thing.

“We cannot continue to have a revolving door when it comes to the mayor’s position, for instance.

“That is very destructive for economic growth, sustainability, longevity and consistency and succession.

“We need stability at the municipal level. Political parties need to come to the party at this level.” Magubane said.

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