ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa has used his opening address at the party’s national general council (NGC) sitting on the East Rand to defend the decision to form the government of national unity (GNU). The decision was taken by the national executive committee (NEC), the ANC’s highest decision-making structure in between conferences, just weeks after the 2024 national and provincial elections when the party’s support dipped below 50% for the first time since the dawn of democracy. The NGC is expected to dissect the NEC’s decision to form the GNU which includes political parties such as the DA whose policies clash with those of the ANC.
Some ANC members had complained that the NEC did not properly consult party structures before taking the decision to get into bed with their “enemy”. Since the formation of the GNU, the ANC and DA have clashed on policy decisions in government including broad-based black economic empowerment, the newly established transformation fund worth billions as well as the Expropriation Act. But Ramaphosa, anticipating a heated debate over the GNU, used his opening address to tell the NGC delegates that ANC policies have not been diminished under the GNU.
He said the priorities that were agreed on by the GNU aligned with the ANC’s own policies which included driving inclusive growth, job creation, reducing poverty, tackling the high cost of living and building a capable, ethical and developmental state. “In its assessment of the first year of the GNU, the NEC agreed that we have safeguarded the core progressive policy agenda of the national democratic revolution,” said Ramaphosa. “Through the GNU, the ANC has continued to execute its agenda for nation-building and fundamental social and economic transformation, albeit under difficult conditions.
Read Full Article on Daily Dispatch
[paywall]
We have stood firm against resistance campaigns mounted by right-wing forces and have not retreated from progressive domestic and foreign policy positions.” Ramaphosa told delegates it was the NEC that had said the outcomes of the elections, where the ANC’s support dropped to 40% and could not form a government on its own, had placed the onus on the ANC to ensure there was stability, unity, peace and progress in the country. “After considering the various available options, the NEC decided to invite all political parties in the National Assembly to form a GNU as the best approach to move the country forward,” said Ramaphosa. Parties in the GNU include the DA, IFP, Freedom Front Plus, UDM, Rise Mzansi, Al Jama-ah, PAC and the Good Party.
[/paywall]
