Helen Zille says DA relying on ANC’s disintegration to become majority party

The DA is banking on the possible disintegration of the ANC and President Cyril Ramaphosa stepping down as the party leader for it to be promoted to the largest political party in SA, breaking the ANC’s three-decade dominance.

“The ANC is crumbling and we need to consolidate,” the DA’s federal council chair, Helen Zille, said on Wednesday, adding that the party’s “real competitor” in politics was the EFF following the ANC’s poor performance at the May 29 polls.

The ANC shed a monumental 17 percentage points in the election to win just 40% of the vote, requiring it to form a coalition government with nine other parties: the DA, IFP, GOOD, Patriotic Alliance, UDM, Rise Mzansi, PAC, Al Jama-ah and Freedom Front Plus.

“The radical left [MK and EFF] is now the opposition. They could be in government, which would be much worse. That was the whole point of the election campaign — to keep them out of government, which we succeeded in doing,” Zille said.

“Our real competitor in politics is the EFF, because the EFF knows what it stands for and we know what we stand for.”

Zille, who was central to the DA’s negotiations with the ANC on the formation of the government of national unity (GNU), was speaking at a post-election dialogue hosted by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation.

Over the next 10 to 15 years, the ANC was likely to disintegrate as it grappled with the loss of complete state power, thereby making it unable to dispense patronage, Zille said.

“As the ANC disintegrates ... our job [is] to be in government and to govern so well and to show people the DA difference in government, and to consolidate the nonracial, democratic centre in SA,” she said.

“My prediction is that over the next 10 to 15 years the ANC will continue to crumble and the big challenge is the constitutionalists [will] win that base. Will the constitutionalists be able to come together in the realigned politics so that we can continue to govern this country as a viable democracy or will the MK and EFF win that race?”

During negotiations over the GNU’s formation after the elections, the ANC placed Ramaphosa as the leader of the party as a non-negotiable despite the election results, which the DA accepted.

However, Ramaphosa is likely to step down as party leader at the ANC’s next internal leadership contest in 2027 because the ANC’s rules do not permit him to serve for three terms at the helm.

This is likely to ensure the ANC’s electoral support is brought down to 25% at the 2029 elections as Ramaphosa is the ANC’s “trump card”.

The DA retained its majority in the Western Cape in the general election. It hopes to replicate its governance model of that province in Gauteng, where Zille said its voter base was fragmented by “proxy parties” of the ANC, such as Rise Mzansi and Build One SA.

Patronage

“What does the ANC stand for? No-one knows. You hear the mantra nonracial, democratic, nonsexist ... Really what they are is a party that stays in power because of patronage, because they hold power and because they can dispense the goodies. When a party is only held together by patronage it’s only a matter of time before it disintegrates,” she said.

After a closely watched tussle over cabinet posts at national level, the DA has six ministers and six deputy ministers. These include the important home affairs and communications ministries. DA MPs Leon Schreiber and Solly Malatsi have been appointed as ministers in these portfolios, respectively.

DA leader John Steenhuisen was appointed as agriculture minister.

maekot@businesslive.co.za