Inside Politics Reporter
THE South African Communist Party (SACP) has warned that the Democratic Alliance (DA) through its ‘outlandish demands’ has positioned itself against the government of national unity and effectively embarked on a ‘hostile takeover’.
The SACP concluded its bimonthly meeting this week and urged President Cyril Ramaphosa to move swiftly to appoint the Deputy President, Ministers and Deputy Ministers.
Reports say the DA is demanding representation in five of the cabinet clusters, amounting to eleven ministerial positions, and either the position of Deputy President, or of Minister in the Presidency designated as Leader of Government Business and Deputy Minister of Finance.
But the ANC has reached out and offered the DA six Cabinet and seven deputy minister positions as part of the deal in the multi-party coalition agreement.
However, the SACP has denounced what it called “attempts by the DA, a party with a little over half of the ANC’s votes, at elevating itself to or usurping the role of the party with the largest votes”.
“This is obvious from the DA’s manoeuvres to secure a hostile takeover through a grand coalition with the ANC, also involving the IFP, in which the DA will wield veto power under the guise of “sufficient consensus”. This must not be allowed to see the light of day.
“The SACP Political Bureau emphasised the importance of meaningful Alliance consultation and building and maintaining national stability and certainty. This requires decisiveness against any section that has resorted to trickery, brinkmanship and untenable demands to steal power and thus undermine the will of the people,” spokesperson Dr Alex Mashilo said.
Mashilo said any success from the trickery, brinkmanship and untenable demands by the DA will be tantamount to undermining the will of the people and stability in our economy and country.
“This neo-liberal party, whose leadership composition starkly reminds us of the persisting legacy of racism due to the stark contrast between their racial composition and the national population demographics, has to face deep-going working-class mobilisation, as will any slightest rightward shift in government policy direction,” he warned.
Mashilo said the DA’s trickery, hypocritical and untenable demands vindicate the SACP, which has on the record expressed strong opposition to a coalition with the DA.
“In doing so, the SACP made its preferred option of an ANC-led minority government with the features of a government of national unity clear,” he said, adding that the DA’s trickery, brinkmanship and untenable demands tend towards the division of the Cabinet, which would be akin to a federation of unaccountable ministers if there were to be one part of the Cabinet which would operate separately and accountable to the DA as its “ministers”, rather than adhering to the unified whole Cabinet outlined in the constitution.
Mashilo said the DA’s demands fly in the face of the constitution and labour laws. “A party that has claimed to support “the separation of party and state” is now vehemently demanding the exact opposite.
“It has pretended to have a problem with ‘cadre deployment’ and anti-constitutionalism, but it is now demanding that the President must accept new practices which would amount to an exclusive DA cadre deployment,” the SACP said.
In a leaked letter of demands addressed to the ANC Secretary-General, dated 24 June 2024, the DA further demands that “Directors General in departments reporting to the DA ministers be selected by panels consisting of the party’s ministers, and submitted to the President for his approval, and that such approval cannot reasonably be withheld” – note, not unreasonably.
To pave the way for this anti-constitutionalism in favour of its exclusive cadre deployment policy, Mashilo said the DA is also demanding that the contracts of current DGs must be “reconsidered” – meaning terminated.
SACP said DA must note that DGs are, correctly so, not rightless. They are covered by the hard-won labour rights enshrined in constitution and labour law with a defined tenure, Mashilo said.
“Any arbitrary termination of their contracts would amount to an abuse of the DGs, who are unlikely to be passive. Such abuse will also lead to wasteful spending of public resources.
“The SACP will stand in solidarity with the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union in the fight to protect their rights against such violation, just as it stands for the rights of all workers,” he said.
The SACP Central Committee plenary will meet over the weekends and conclude with a press briefing on Sunday.
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