The DA federal council chairperson, Helen Zille, and her faction, who pushed for the party to table a motion of no confidence in President Cyril Ramaphosa, came out of two decision-making body meetings with a bloodied nose.
This was after the faction led by DA leader John Steenhuisen successfully pushed against the proposal to remove Ramaphosa and pull out of the government of national unity, saying that he was a better devil than his deputy, Paul Mashatile.
The information that Steenhuisen and his coterie succeeded in blocking the proposal to remove Ramaphosa was confirmed by several DA members who attended the meetings, which were held virtually on Saturday and Thursday, following the axing of the DA’s Andrew Whitfield as a deputy minister.
Whitfield was fired by Ramaphosa after he travelled abroad without permission from the president, as dictated to by the rules.
The members, who did not want to be named, said Zille and her faction, in retaliation for Whitefield’s expulsion, pushed for the DA to dump the GNU.
However, Steenhuisen’s grouping stood firm, adamant that they should continue with the marriage of convenience.
“As it stands, they are not leaving the GNU as the Fedex is divided on whether to walk away, with more than half voting against it. Helen is leading the charge to walk away. John says no, there’s a need for level heads now as no impact can be made from the outside. Helen was very furious about the response from the president,” according to a source.
When exiting the GNU push did not win the day, there was a move to instead table a motion of no confidence against Ramaphosa.
Sources said during Saturday’s meeting, when the party met to finalise its decision, Zille’s camp once again raised a motion of no confidence against Ramaphosa, which was rejected by Steenhuisen’s backers who argued that it would alienate the ministers from the GNU.
“What was argued was that while we disagree with Ramaphosa, he was a better option compared to Paul Mashatile, which is what we currently do not want to deal with.
Minister Dion George, (DA federal chairperson) Ivan Meyer are among those who supported the view, and obvious Helen was not happy, but the majority led,” the source said.
At the press briefing yesterday, a defeated Zille told the media that the ANC had disregarded the DA from the outset during the formation of the GNU, and this she knew better than anyone as the person who was leading the DA’s negotiations.
“It’s written in clause 18 of the Statement of Intent that all decisions in the government of national unity will be taken by consensus.
“And if you can’t get consensus, it will be by sufficient consensus. And then under clause 19, there is a clear definition of what sufficient consensus entails,” said Zille.
“There’s supposed to be a mechanism to apply sufficient consensus. It has never been implemented. Instead, the ANC, in bad faith, tried to put together a clearing house mechanism, which turned out to be an attempt to get around the sufficient consensus clause, and was a complete farce.”
Some Fedex members questioned why Ramaphosa chose to intentionally “target” Whitfield.
DA spokesperson Willie Aucamp told Sunday World that Whitfield’s woes are beyond his trip to the US.
He claims that the former deputy minister was sidelined by his colleagues in the ministry – Parks Tau and deputy minister Zuko Godlimpi.
The DA is of the view that the president should balance his prerogatives with the reality of being part of the GNU as the ANC no longer governs alone.
Steenhuisen announced this in yesterday’s press briefing, following the expiry of the 48-hour ultimatum the party had set for Ramaphosa to reverse the
dismissal.
“We considered tabling a motion of no confidence against the president. We will not, at this stage, but we are losing confidence in the president,” said Steenhuisen.
He justified the non-implementation of this option to what he calls the awareness that it would allow “the coalition of chaos” between the ANC and EFF and or MKP.
After all the bravado, the threats and heated internal debates within the DA, the party eventually settled with a mild decision of pulling out of the R700-million National Dialogue planned by Ramaphosa’s government. Speaking to Sunday World, DA spokesperson Karabo Khakhau downplayed the tension and said the party was united.
