Steenhuisen warned of ‘insubordination’ over national dialogue stance — report

Cracks in the government of national unity (GNU) are becoming gulfs as its biggest parties exchange threats.

Relations between the ANC and DA have been frayed almost since the onset of the GNU, but have taken extra strain this past week.

Former president Thabo Mbeki and DA leader John Steenhuisen exchanged open letters, with The Presidency then reminding the latter of his “ministerial obligations”.

Risking ‘insubordination’

The first national convention to set the agenda for the national dialogue is scheduled for mid-August, with a planning workshop having been held this past week.

Part of the national dialogue includes an interministerial committee chaired by Deputy President Paul Mashatile that will lead and coordinate government’s role in the process.

The Presidency stated that the Minister of Agriculture was appointed to the committee, placing the DA’s public stance at odds with official duty.

Steenhuisen and the DA declared last weekend that they would not participate in the national dialogue after President Cyril Ramaphosa ignored the party’s ultimatum over the removal of Andrew Whitfield from his deputy minister role.

Spokesperson for The Presidency, Vincent Magwenya, reportedly stated that Steenhuisen’s lack of participation in the committee could draw Ramaphosa’s ire.

“It will be important for the sake of the DA’s continued participation in the GNU that Minister Steenhuisen is able to separate his ministerial obligations from his party positions,” Magwenya told the Sunday Times.

“His refusal to participate in the national dialogue interministerial committee will be regarded by the president as insubordination,” Magwenya asserted.  

ANC’s ‘ethical transgressions’

Steenhuisen fired back at Mbeki on Friday after the former president called the DA’s refusal to participate in the national dialogue “misplaced and very strange indeed”.

The DA leader said that Whitfield’s actions — taking an international trip without permission — were “far less egregious than the moral and ethical transgressions” of other ANC members of cabinet.

Steenhuisen reiterated the DA’s belief that the national dialogue was an ANC campaign tool needed to halt the party’s electoral decline.

“We regard the proposed national dialogue, dominated as it is by foundations linked to the ANC, as a political manoeuvre aimed at placing a band-aid on the ANC’s electoral wound,” he wrote.

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