The Government of National Unity (GNU) will last at least the next two years and the DA can use “the nuclear option” once to walk out of the coalition.
The DA will have to be judicious if it was to use use “nuclear option or a walkout” of the GNU in case it opened the door for the uMkhonto weSizwe Party and the EFF to be part of the next government.
This was the view of City of Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis when he answered questions during his address at the Cape Town Press Club on Thursday.
“My gut tells me that the GNU will survive at least the next two years,” said Hill-Lewis after prefacing his answer that “it’s very dangerous to make predictions in politics”.
He noted that the ANC would hold its elective conference to elect new leaders, including a replacement of incumbent President Cyril Ramaphosa, at the end of 2027.
“I think there is enough goodwill and commitment inside the GNU at the moment to see at least it through till then. After that, I am not prepared to make a firm prediction. So much depends on who ascends at that conference,” the mayor said.
Hill-Lewis said although Ramaphosa was not legally proscribed from running again, but he was unlikely to do so because there is a term limit in the presidency.
“We understand that he faces this kind of very militant anti-GNU faction inside the party. I don’t know how that balance of forces will play out.”
He also said the country probably has a window of two years to make a really meaningful change in South Africa.
“We can’t let that opportunity go. We have to use every single day to its maximum potential to get South Africa moving and growing because we just don’t know further after the two years time,” he said.
Asked when it was suggested to him that the anti-corruption bill the DA has introduced in Parliament was likely to break the camel’s back in the GNU, Hill-Lewis again said it was dangerous to make predictions in politics as things could change quickly.
“I don’t know, maybe, that will be a cause of collapse of GNU,” he said though he later doubted the bills could collapse the GNU.
He said the ANC could agree to set up the anti-corruption commission and have its deployees hired there.
“There is a lot of ways to get around a Chapter 9 body.”
Hill-Lewis said the DA could use “the nuclear option” only once by walking out and collapse the GNU.
“It has the power to walk out of the government and cause the government to no longer have a majority even with all the other smaller parties. It (GNU) does not have a majority without the DA,” he said.
“We can use that card but we can use it only once and then it is over.”
Hill-Lewis said the watershed formation of the GNU last year, resulted in the first green shoots of cooperation with national government departments, as the new personnel of the GNU brought fresh ideas to the table.
He expressed his delight at how refreshing it has been to deal with Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, whom he said seemed open to the idea of dialogue around expanded policing powers for the metro.
“If all goes well, 2025 will see an amended SAPS Act giving more investigative powers to City police to deal specifically with gun, drug and gang crimes. This will be the biggest step forward in decades for policing in Cape Town, and for fighting crime in gang-ravished areas.”
He also said the metro has had excellent cooperation with the Department of Home Affairs.
“We are very excited about the imminent opening of a brand new smart Home Affairs branch right in our own civic centre. We made that cooperation work immediately and to the benefit of the public.”
Hill-Lewis said they have also made great progress in partnership with the Department of Public Works on the issue of problem buildings across the city.
“The recent eviction of the illegal occupation around the Castle of Good Hope is certainly not something that would’ve happened under the old Public Works.”