ANC, DA gloves off in GNU dust-up

Emotions run high in first big cabinet fallout among partners over new spending plans

● The GNU has been rocked by its first cabinet showdown, with ANC and DA ministers clashing heatedly over proposed spending plans, including on the contentious National Health Insurance (NHI).

Insiders said an extended cabinet meeting on Friday got heated and tempers flared.

The biggest disagreement related specifically to a target set in the medium-term development plan (MTDP) that medical aids would effectively be scrapped by 2029.

The MTDP translates GNU priorities into a detailed five-year plan and spells out interventions that government will make over its term of office.

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi was called to order by his colleagues after losing his cool with DA ministers, those privy to the discussions said.

“There’s a section on NHI saying that a target of the plan is full implementation, effectively squashing medical aids.

“The DA looks at this and says, ‘I’m sorry, this is not a possibility, we can’t protect something like this’,” said a highly placed government official who attended the meeting.

It set off a war of words between the parties to the point that Motsoaledi started shouting and had to called to order by his colleagues. Motsoaledi tried to class it as a war between rich and poor and some people said this was not true because you have many public servants on medical aid and you wouldn’t call them rich,” said the official, who asked not to be named.

Motsoaledi referred the Sunday Times to cabinet spokesperson and minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni.

Ntshavheni emphasised that cabinet meetings were confidential. However, she added, “The MTDP will be finalised at the January 2025 cabinet lekgotla to allow clusters to finalise their priority proposals.

“Relating to NHI, it is now law and therefore will be implemented as reiterated by President Ramaphosa in his reply to the National Assembly on October 17.

As it relates to complaints against the NHI, the president and minister of health are waiting for Business Unity South Africa (Busa) to return with specific issues they have with NHI. A generalisation is not acceptable, as there cannot be a problem with universal access to quality healthcare for all South Africans.”

It was the first time the ANC came face to face with the reality of its May 29 electoral defeat and the fact that the DA and other opposition parties are determined to have their say in the GNU.

After a heated discussion, it is understood that President Cyril Ramaphosa and Deputy President Paul Mashatile intervened — proposing that the MTDP be sent back to cabinet clusters and that other issues of contention be referred to the clearing house — a GNU dispute-resolution mechanism.

While the DA is believed to have claimed victory, ANC insiders said it was Ramaphosa who decided that the MTDP be turned back and be presented again at the cabinet lekgotla in January.

The Sunday Times understands DA ministers strongly objected to the document endorsing the NHI in its present format and making provisions for how it should be funded.

Participants also clashed over the control of the country’s harbours and the depart

ment of trade & industry’s localisation policy.

The country’s ports are run by Transnet’s national ports authority but the DA prefers private partners to take over Cape Town harbour. The party also wants the localisation policy to be ditched, saying it makes goods more expensive for locals.

Finance minister Enoch Godongwana told the Sunday Times that referral of the MTDP back to clusters would not affect his midterm budget due to be delivered at the end of the month.

Delivering the state of the nation address in July, Ramaphosa said the cabinet would convene strategic sessions to consider the MTDP, which would translate GNU priorities into a detailed plan and interventions the government would make in the next five years.

Maropene Ramokgopa, the minister responsible for planning, monitoring and evaluation, presented the plan to the extended cabinet meeting which was also attended by deputy minsters, provincial premiers, directors-general and other top government officials.

The Sunday Times understands that Western Cape premier Alan Winde led the objection from the DA side, taking issue with the inclusion of NHI as a spending priority.

The DA has taken a strong stance against the law that seeks to introduce universal health coverage since Ramaphosa signed it on the eve of the May elections.

DA ministers represented in the GNU; Steenhuisen, Dion George, Siviwe Gwarube, Leon Schreiber and Solly Malatsi are said to have spoken on NHI and raised other issues with the plan.

This is the second time the GNU partners have disagreed over key legislation. The DA threatened to quit the GNU when Ramaphosa signed the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill (Bela) into law last month. A last-minute compromise resulted in a delay in the implementation of two contentious clauses, sections 4 and 5.

Other GNU insiders said DA ministers cannot claim to have stopped the MTDP because there was unhappiness about the document even in the ANC.

Another insider said the president sent back the document because “he felt there were spending targets that were not accommodated in the document”.

“He sent it back for clusters to infuse those targets,” said a GNU insider.

According to senior government insiders, it had been clear earlier in the week that the different cabinet clusters would not be ready for the special cabinet meeting and that “they needed time to prepare ”— but “the cabinet secretary insisted” on continuing with the meeting.

Several ministers are understood to have requested a postponement, saying they would not be ready but this fell on deaf ears.

“The problem is that the clusters were not ready to discuss the MTDP,” said an insider. “The secretary [of cabinet] was correct to schedule it because the meeting has to happen. but the clusters were not ready because the ministers were busy with other important things.”

Insiders confirmed that DA ministers had raised concerns about the NHI but had not raised “specifics” about their objections. This, the cabinet insider said, was also the case with Business Unity SA (Busa), which had been given a deadline to report back to the president on NHI.

Mineral resources minister Gwede Mantashe is said to have spoken in favour of adopting the plan, saying laws from the previous administration “could not just be tossed away”.

Another GNU insider accused ANC ministers of refusing to compromise and acting as if this was not a new government. “It can’t be just one party always compromising.”

The insider said DA ministers were never going to agree to adoption of the plan when it hadn’t been thoroughly discussed in Cabinet clusters and other platforms, was unclear on the funding model for NHI, and still contained plans to scrap of medical aids.