The Government of National Unity (GNU) is going to collapse before Christmas, says the president of the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), Kenneth Meshoe.
Meshoe said he bet on his last penny that the newly sworn in President Cyril Ramaphosa would not be occupying the West Wing of the Union Buildings by December.
Meshoe said on Wednesday: “We didn’t want to send a contradicting message to our voters that we are in support of this government. We are South Africans and love our people. They have suffered a lot due to a lack of service delivery.
“I would be surprised if Ramaphosa is still in office before Christmas. His Phala Phala case is waiting for him in Parliament. The matter will be part of the agenda in Parliament, and he will have to account.”
Meshoe said he declined to be part of the GNU after he was approached by the ANC’s party leadership asking him to be part of it.
He said the GNU worked well in 1994, saying it helped with reconciliation.
Meshoe said he was curious to see what the current GNU would produce.
“There are issues that people in the GNU are not happy about. Now we were invited to join the GNU but we declined because we have been telling voters to vote for us because the ANC has failed. Us joining the GNU would have been contradicting.
“We are also not part of the Progressive Alliance in Parliament because we don’t know what they have discussed about the Bela Bill during their first meeting, so we don’t want to want to join and later take each other to court because we are principled organisation,” he added.
Build One SA leader Mmusi Maimane said he was celebrating that South Africa had moved from liberation politics to governing politics.
Maimane said his message to Ramaphosa was that now was the right time to be strong and decisive in action.
“The ANC was arrogant when they led alone, but now that other parties have joined them, we hope they will be able to deliver services,” Maimane said.
He said the country must treat the GNU as a coalition, and in a coalition there had to be constructive opposition.
“We also need to understand who is coalescing with whom and what we are going to do in the next five years. That should be the sole focus. A team without an agenda is just a team for a get-together, but the agenda must be foregrounded. If you have an agenda, you can build a functioning state,” Maimane added.
The ANC has so far managed to get the DA, IFP, PAC, GOOD and the PA.
Dignitaries from across the world attended the inauguration at the Union Buildings yesterday.
The EFF and uMkhonto weSizwe Party boycotted the inauguration, saying it was marriage between the DA and ANC.
The Star
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