The grandson of the late former statesman Nelson Mandela, Mandla Mandela said it was heartening to witness the ANC co-governing with the party that was supporting the mass massacre of Palestinian women and children.
Mandela said the ANC crisscrossed the country telling voters that their vote was a vote for Palestinians.
“During the elections the ANC said a vote for the ANC is a vote for the people of Palestine, but today it is planning to go to a coalition with the very Zionists that support the mass massacre of Palestinian women and babies,” a discouraged Mandela said.
He was reacting to reports that the ANC, IFP and the DA would form a Government of National Unity (GNU) together.
At the same time, the party’s Liliesleaf Farm branch in Midrand, Johannesburg, said it was not in support of the GNU as well co-governing with the DA.
Through its statement, the branch said the country was not in a state of crisis for it to venture into a GNU.
“From our observation and above it is clear that South Africa is not in a crisis; however, it requires political intelligence to enable all political parties to act in line with the will of the people.
“We are therefore of the view that the concept of Government of National Unity (GNU) is misplaced in relation to current national and provincial elections outcomes, we rather consider coalitions.
“Misclassifications open a huge political risk that could possibly threaten the future existence of our liberation movement. We must not be blindfolded in our approach in the spirit of inclusivity since all political parties that contest national elections remain opposition parties and any form of coalition entered into should be handled with care.
“We therefore submit that the ANC NEC (national executive committee) should seek to form a coalition with other political parties that will enable us to have an acceptable threshold nationally and at provinces such as KZN and GP, considering ANC renewal agenda and six priorities per our manifesto.”
EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu also denounced the partnership between these three parties, saying that the partnership was based on “opportunistic convenience”.
Shivambu said the EFF was not in the business of elite pacts, adding that his organisation was negotiating a coalition based on sound political and ideological principles.
He said the lack of ideological principles was the reason the EFF would not repeat the 1994 farce of what it called a “senseless GNU”.
“Our view is that the Democratic Alliance, the Freedom Front Plus, diametrically represent different interests to the interests of majority of South Africa, which is about redress of the imbalances of the past,” Shivambu added.
UDM deputy president Nqabayomzi Kwankwa accused the ANC of taking “small parties” for “fools”.
Kwankwa said their meeting with the ANC was just so the party could tick its boxes to show that they had indeed met with other parties.
“Not that we want to be part of this so-called ‘GNU’, but what is the point of calling it a GNU if the consultation with other parties was a tick-box exercise to give the GNU ‘legitimacy’, without holding any substantive talks with them? The ANC thinks we are stupid,” he said.
A former spokesperson of the ANC’s secretary-general, Esethu Hasane, also entered the fray against an ANC-DA coalition government, and said as members of the organisation they felt insulted as they were told that the DA was more ANC than the ANC itself.
Hasane said the ANC Youth League’s utterances that the DA was the most non-racial party in South Africa, adding that its diversity surpassed that of the ANC, was dishonest.
He said the concept of non-racialism wasn’t about mere optics and the superficial appearance of diversity.
“Non-racialism encompasses far more than just the visible diversity within a party. It involves deep-seated policies, practices, and an overall commitment to racial equality. We can’t accuse the DA of that.
“Leadership and representation are critical, but they are only one aspect of non-racialism. The DA fails dismally on that score – even if we judge merely on that,” added Hasane.
The Star