PREVIEW
The latest crisis in the government of national unity points to its fragility and questions about how much longer it can survive
The Government of National Unity (GNU) was on the brink of collapse following the Democratic Alliance’s reaction to the sacking of Deputy Trade Minister Andrew Whitfield. The ostensible reason for the dismissal is Whitfield travelling with another DA deputy, Emma Powell, to Washington for meetings with officials and lawmakers without President Cyril Ramaphosa’s approval. Whitfield says that he requested permission from the president’s office but received no reply.
No explanation for his removal has been given by Ramaphosa’s office. But Whitfield’s trip to Washington DC contributed to it. He appeared to be freelancing diplomatically when South Africa was in the United States administration’s firing line. It was mooted that South Africa would be targeted for wide-ranging economic sanctions after President Donald Trump’s second term started in January. After Whitfield’s sacking, Ramaphosa tried to minimise the damage to the coalition with his office saying that the president: ‘has not indicated any intention to conduct a wholesale cabinet reshuffle.’
Other political sources said that Whitfield’s public discussion of action against those ministers from the African National Congress who are under investigation for corruption triggered pressure from senior party officials, such as Vice-President Paul Mashatile and Mines Minister Gwede Mantashe, to sack him.
Parliamentary business continued as the row blew up. DA MPs voted in favour of the key budget. Yet Ramaphosa’s decision, with the fiscal row still fresh in the memory, is curious. The GNU, in which Ramaphosa’s ANC is the largest party, is fragile following months of bitter wrangling over this year’s budget, and his government would be unlikely to survive without DA support (AC Vol 66 No 8, The budget fight threatening to shatter the coalition & Dispatches 28/4/25, Treasury is the big loser after the tax hike fiasco).
Whitfield has described his dismissal as 'an unnecessary provocation,’ and party leader John Steenhuisen convened a meeting of the party’s Federal Executive on 26 June. Following that, Steenhuisen gave Ramaphosa 48 hours to dismiss several senior ministers from the ANC who have been implicated in looting and corruption, in a thinly veiled threat to collapse the government.
‘This unilateral action is the result and a product of a flagrant double standard,’ said Steenhuisen, adding that ‘if this situation is not corrected, it will go down as the greatest political mistake in modern South African history.’ Yet on Saturday evening it was the DA that backed down, leaving many to conclude that its financial backers have more to lose from the collapse of the coalition than Ramaphosa and the ANC.
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