Cabinet update: why GNU negotiations are on shaky ground

It has been over a week since Cyril Ramaphosa was sworn in as President of South Africa on 19 June, however he has been the seventh administration’s sole Cabinet member since.

This is because parties involved in the co-governing agreement labeled the Government of National Unity (GNU), who supported the nomination of African National Congress (ANC) candidates for President and Speaker of the National Assembly, have not found consensus on the composition of the Cabinet.

Since the beginning of negotiations, disputes between the two largest parties in the GNU, the ANC and the Democratic Alliance (DA), have played out in the public arena.

Now, the deal is reportedly on a knife-edge over the Department of Trade and Industry.

Background of contention

Negotiations between the two parties have been ongoing since the GNU was announced.

Looking specifically at the negotiations of the Cabinet, a leaked letter to DA leader John Steenhuisen dated 22 June 2024 from ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula showed that the ANC proposed that the DA take six Cabinet minister and seven deputy minister positions.

Mbalula said that the offer of six ministerial positions was based on “a fair and reasonable manner of determining the number of positions in Cabinet that each party would be appointed” in line with clause 16 of the Statement of Intent.

In another leaked letter dated 23 June 2024, DA Federal Council chairperson Helen Zille responded to this outlining some of the party’s demands at the time.

This included the post of deputy president, alongside representation in all clusters, 11 minister posts and preference in selection of directors-general.

The DA Federal Chairperson emphasised that the DA’s decision to join the GNU hinged on its ability to effect substantial change and “participation in governments in Gauteng and Kwazulu-Natal depend on our participation in government at national level.”

The initial offer

The ANC responded to the letter from Zille, calling the proposals “outlandish and outrageous.”

The two parties got back to the negotiating table.

On 24 June, it was widely circulated (and repeated by several GNU partners) that the DA was offered six Cabinet minister posts and seven deputies, including the key Trade and Industry portfolio that the DA had been eyeing.

The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition is considered a key portfolio in the economic cluster, and would have given the DA significant powers for economic policymaking.

It is understood that the initial concession by the ANC to offer the Trade and Industry post was to get the DA to back down from its demands of the deputy president and minister in the Presidency positions.

However, the ANC alledged that the DA then asked for two additional Cabinet positions after that.

On 25 June 2024, Ramaphosa, in his capacity as ANC President, wrote a scathing letter to DA leader Steenhuisen that, like other letters between the parties, was leaked to the public.

“I believe the DA has jeopardized the foundation of setting up the [GNU] by moving the goalposts in your letter of 24 June to me. I am truly taken aback by how you now want two more portfolios to bring the DA’s portfolios to 8,” said Ramaphosa.

Offer retracted

News24 reports that after a meeting with the ANC top brass on 26 June, Ramaphosa altered the terms of the initial offer, withdrawing the Trade and Industry post offer for that of Tourism.

Ramaphosa also changed the offer of seven deputy ministers to six, although the offer of six ministerial positions remains the same. This is reportedly a “take it or leave it” offer by the ANC.

This has brought negotiations back to shaky grounds.

The DA told News24 that its acceptance of the offer on 25 June represents the party’s “full and final settlement” and that it will not engage in another round of compromise.

Parties are still deliberating on the way forward.

Read: Rand tanks as DA threatens to walk away from Ramaphosa’s Government of National Unity