My fellow South Africans,
A year ago, the formation of the multiparty coalition known as the Government of National Unity (GNU) filled our country with hope.
It followed the decision by the people of South Africa to remove the outright majority that the African National Congress had held since the dawn of our democracy in 1994.
In last year’s election, the people sent a clear message that they no longer wanted the ANC to do as they pleased, regardless of the consequences for our country.
The people said, loudly and clearly, that they were tired of corruption, of unemployment, and of an economy that had not grown meaningfully for more than a decade.
Instead of the same old one-party domination, the people wanted multi-party collaboration.
In short, South Africans voted for things to change.
It is based on this mandate, of change, that the Democratic Alliance joined the GNU.
However, instead of upholding the wishes of the people by working in a respectful and collaborative manner with all partners inside the GNU, the ANC has repeatedly undermined these principles.
Time after time, it has slapped away the hand of substantive cooperation and co-creation, in favour of arrogant and narrow political self-interest.
Right from the start, President Cyril Ramaphosa violated the Statement of Intent signed by all members of the GNU, by appointing a bloated executive without consulting the DA, in order to give the ANC more influence than the voters wanted it to have.
He signed destructive pieces of legislation into law without even having the decency to inform his partners.
He presided over a disastrous budget process, where he failed to take seriously the views of parties who were opposed to the ANC’s proposed two-percentage point VAT increase.
He refused to enable meaningful power-sharing to drive collaborative and urgent reform of the economy to create jobs.
And, this past week, without any forewarning or meaningful consultation, Ramaphosa concocted an excuse to remove a DA Deputy Minister out of the blue, because of his own failure to respond to a request for travel permission.
The hypocrisy of this conduct is even more galling because in 2020, the same Ramaphosa issued a mere reprimand and salary docking to former minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula when she flew an ANC delegation to Zimbabwe in a military plane.
To make matters worse, Ramaphosa has now also defied the 48-hour ultimatum issued to him by his largest coalition partner to act against corruption in his own ranks. This was a clear opportunity to demonstrate that action will be taken consistently and fairly.
By doing so, he has actively chosen to protect Thembi Simelane for her alleged role in VBS looting, he has chosen to protect Nobuhle Nkabane after she actively misled Parliament, and he continues to shield a whole cast of looters implicated in state capture.
Just this morning, instead of taking action against state capture, the ANC cleared Malusi Gigaba, David Mahlobo, Zizi Kodwa and Cedric Frolick from all charges against them.
Despite this pattern of double standards and abuse of power, DA members of the executive have remained focused on delivering for the people of South Africa.
The strides we have made in portfolios like Agriculture, Home Affairs, Public Works and Infrastructure, Communications and Digital Technologies, as well as Environment – and through hardworking Deputy Ministers like Andrew Whitfield – has set a new standard of excellence for governance at national level.
In some cases, the DA literally achieved more in twelve months than the ANC did in thirty years.
But perhaps this is the real source of the ANC’s double-standard towards the DA.
They know the DA is succeeding.
They know that the performance of DA Ministers puts their party to shame.
And they know that the opportunities for looting and corruption are shrinking wherever DA reforms are implemented.
The flagrant double-standard that protects the likes of Simelane and Nkabane but acts against Whitfield, proves that in the ANC’s universe the only things you dare not be, are competent, honest, and hard-working.
But this is not about an isolated incident.
It is about a pattern of disrespect, arrogance and double-standards.
The ANC has refused to implement clause 19.3 of the Statement of Intent that requires sufficient consensus to resolve disputes, directly undermining the GNU.
And the President’s refusal to act against corruption within his own ranks, risks confirming that his oft-repeated public commitment to clean governance is a sham.
Until he replaces words with action against corruption within his own ranks, the DA sees no further point in wasting our breath in endless talk shops with the ANC.
For that reason, the Federal Executive of the DA has resolved to withdraw from the National Dialogue with immediate effect.
In the absence of a President who is prepared to take action against VBS looters and state capture accused sitting around his own Cabinet table, it is clear that this Dialogue will be nothing more than a waste of time and money to distract from the ANC’s failures.
This explains why President Ramaphosa and the ANC are so obsessed with it.
It is an electioneering ploy, at taxpayer expense, to gloss over the serious crises that the ANC has plunged South Africa into.
The Dialogue also has no constitutional standing whatsoever to take or impose decisions.
Frankly, the President cannot even dialogue meaningfully with his own coalition partners, so there is little point in pretending there is any substance to an ANC-run National Dialogue.
In fact, the President has repeatedly promised a breakaway to engage with GNU party leaders but a year later, nothing has happened. Similarly a proposed breakaway for the cabinet was promised, but a year later nothing has happened.
Plus, we already had a National Dialogue last year.
It’s called an election, and the people said they want nothing more to do with ANC one-party domination.
Effective immediately, the DA will therefore have no further part in this process.
We will also actively mobilise against it to stop this obscene waste of R740 million – starting with a call on civil society to join us in demanding that the National Dialogue not proceed until President Ramaphosa fires ANC-corruption accused and other delinquents from the executive.
The people of South Africa should not be taken for fools.
They know that any National Dialogue is utterly meaningless when it is presided over by criminals and the corrupt and those who provide safe refuge for them.
A second, critically important step that the DA is taking, is to vote against upcoming departmental budget votes for the departments headed by Simelane, Nkabane, and other corruption-accused ANC Ministers.
We will keep voting against those departmental votes until those Ministers are removed.
In this way, the DA will strike the appropriate balance by allowing the broader GNU budget process to proceed to ensure the stability of the country, while forcing the ANC to act against specific Ministers.
If the ANC wants our support for those departmental budgets, they must replace the incumbent Ministers with alternatives that meet the very standard the President has set for himself through Whitfield’s axing.
A further step that was actively considered by the Federal Executive, is the tabling of a Motion of No Confidence in the President.
We understand the concerns that many South Africans have about what will follow once Ramaphosa is removed from office.
However, I want to be honest that, in the DA’s view, the President is failing to uphold his word to act against corruption and fast becoming indistinguishable from the RET faction in his party.
While the FedEx decided not to table a Motion of No Confidence at this stage, it is clear that the DA is in the process of losing confidence in his ability to act as a leader not of the ANC, but of the GNU of which we are the second largest component.
I do want to take a moment to explain to citizens what this process involves, should it materialise in future.
At every instance where President Ramaphosa has chosen to protect corruption-accused within his own ranks while treating his coalition partners with contempt, he has sought to justify his actions by hiding behind something called “presidential prerogative.”
He uses the fact that the Constitution gives the President certain powers as a blanket excuse to take action against honest and hard-working Members of the Executive, while shielding those implicated in corruption and mismanagement.
But it seems the ANC has never asked where this prerogative comes from in the first place.
The President only has this prerogative because of his partners in the GNU, without whose votes in Parliament he would have been a one-term President.
Unlike the ANC’s suggestion that this prerogative is some kind of God-given right, it was only conferred temporarily on Ramaphosa – the leader of a party with just 40% support among South Africans – by the parties in the GNU.
More specifically, without the DA’s numbers in Parliament, Ramaphosa has no such prerogative.
What was ours given by acting in good faith, is ours to take away when shown bad faith .
If the ANC fails to course-correct, the FedEx will seriously consider exercising our constitutional prerogative by tabling a Motion of No Confidence.
My fellow South Africans,
Last year, you voted to reconstitute government and set our country on a new path.
The DA honoured the wish of the electorate through the Statement of Intent that formed the GNU.
We love our country, and we work against tremendous odds every day to act in the best interests of all South Africans.
If this signed Statement of Intent had been implemented, the national government would, by now, be charting the course of reform and economic growth that the voters wanted.
However, because the ANC has failed to honour the agreement they signed, they continue to protect corruption.
Our withdrawal and mobilisation against the National Dialogue, as well as our opposition against the budgets of corruption-accused Ministers, is the first in a series of possible steps that are now on the table, in an attempt to fix the GNU to align with the mandate that you – the voters – gave us in the 2024 election.
If the ANC wants to kick the DA out for fighting corruption, so be it.
But as long as ANC Members of the Executive implicated in corruption, misleading of Parliament, and other acts of malfeasance remain around the Cabinet table, the DA will not support their departmental budgets in Parliament, and will not participate in the National Dialogue.
And, if the ANC does not urgently change the way it engages with its coalition partners so that we can fight corruption and start growing the economy. Then they imperil the future of the country and its people.
From the inception of the beginning of the GNU, the DA, has always acted in the best interests of South Africa. Its time now that President Ramaphosa and the ANC do the same.
Thank you.