Mabuyakhulu says GNU budget impasse will not affect KZN coalition

The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal is adamant the budget impasse between the party and the DA in the government of national unity (GNU) will not affect the coalition in the province.

The reassurance comes as the ANC and the DA have been at odds over the inclusion in the budget of a 0.5 percentage point VAT increase. The impasse became so tense that the DA voted against the budget, leading to President Cyril Ramaphosa saying its actions meant it defined itself outside the GNU.

There was a view the DA would soon exit the GNU. 

There was concern a DA exit from the GNU would affect the government of provincial unity (GPU) in KwaZulu-Natal, where the ANC, DA and IFP are collectively running the province, with the IFP’s Thami Ntuli as premier.

The concern was a collapse of the GNU would risk handing the province to the Jacob Zuma-led MK Party, which holds the largest share of the votes at 45.9%.

However, the recently appointed co-ordinator of the provincial task team (PTT) Mike Mabuyakhulu sought to assure KwaZulu-Natal residents the GPU would not be affected.

“We want to underscore that despite recent developments at the national government level, the GPU is stable and seized with the task of building a better province and delivering services to our people,” said Mabuyakhulu.

The GPU, he said, had conflict resolution mechanisms that would ensure disagreements would not destroy the coalition.

“Where there are differences among the partners, a mechanism has been developed to resolve such differences,” said Mabuyakhulu.

“As we delve deeper in the work of the GPU, new issues may arise but there are enough measures in the agreement to address even issues the original coalition agreement may not have contemplated. There is stability in KwaZulu-Natal. We regard the GPU as a very important tactical side of struggle and our commitment to it is unwavering.”

Mabuyakhulu was speaking at a sectoral engagement with civil society as part of the ANC PTT’s ongoing exercise to rebuild the party in the province.

Civil society representatives raised several service delivery challenges affecting the province, including water provision.

Some participants raised concerns about the execution of decisions, saying the ANC was good at identifying problems and coming up with policies but bad at executing them.

They said the ANC should also focus on consequence management in municipalities and implement monitoring processes for councillors who were “sleeping on jobs”.

These are some of the problems participants said had “broken” their hearts, leading to their votes going “somewhere else”.

Mabuyakhulu told the meeting the ANC must admit it had made mistakes in the recent past which must be immediately corrected.

“As the ANC we must accept we have experienced the sins of the incumbency and at times we may have missteps,” said Mabuyakhulu.

“The ANC has been the trusted bearer of the people's aspirations for 113 years. From the tensions of struggle through the dark years of apartheid to the dawn of democracy, the ANC has always been more than a political party. It has been a people's movement.

“However, in recent times we must admit with humility and courage that we have experienced some missteps and may have committed tactical errors. If the mistakes were committed by other parties nothing would have been made of them, but because the ANC is correctly held to a higher standard, these are a cause for concern and we must accept and admit the mistakes.”

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