Pressure mounts from the ANC National Working Committee (NEC) for President Cyril Ramaphosa to deal with DA ministers who did not support the 2025 National Budget.
Sources told IOL that the ANC Parliament caucus was not impressed with how the DA voted against the budget while they are a big fish in the Government of National Unity (GNU).
Although insiders could not confirm the exact decision by the NEC, the ministers are potentially to be without jobs.
The ANC is expected to convene a special NEC meeting on Monday to deliberate on the way forward following recent developments in Parliament.
The NEC, the highest decision-making body of the ANC between conferences, will consider critical matters affecting governance and the national political landscape.
“The NEC will decide on what to do with the DA because what they are doing is unacceptable. The members are not happy with this behaviour and some want the DA totally out of the GNU.
“Heard the leaked audio? The deputy president [Paul Mashatile] wants the DA out,” the source said.
Another source said, “These double standards of the DA is what members will be discussing, and it must come to an end. The DA cannot act as an opposition party whenever they feel like it. They are in the GNU and that’s period. We must deal with them.
“We want Ramaphosa to fire them because they are blocking the flow of government’s work.”
In the leaked audio, Ramaphosa can be heard telling the ANC caucus that if the DA did not vote in favour of the budget, then it would have kicked itself out of the GNU.
He was reflecting on the meeting he had with DA leader John Steenhuisen.
The DA has since opened a case against a 0.5% VAT hike budget that was passed in Parliament on Wednesday in Cape Town.
The party argued that the budget was pushed illegally without following proper procedures, and that the VAT increase will hurt struggling South Africans.
192 MPs voted in favour of the budget, while 182 voted against it.
ATM, EFF, MK Party, Freedom Front Plus (FF+), and ACDP, including the DA, voted against the adoption of the fiscal framework.
ANC, ActionSA, BOSA, Al Jamah-ah, PAC, UAT, GOOD, IFP, and PA voted in favour.
Some of the ANC leaders expressed their displeasure with the DA, waiting impatiently for their exit from the GNU.
The DA is yet to announce whether they will stay or leave the GNU.
“The DA's Federal Executive met today (Thursday) for 90 minutes and began its discussions on the current situation concerning the Budget, economic reform, the VAT increase, and the DA's position in the GNU.
These discussions are not yet final and will be ongoing,” DA federal chairperson Helen Zille updated in a statement on Thursday.
But Zille said the GNU would fall if Ramaphosa fired the DA ministers.
Meanwhile, ActionSA’s Chief Whip, Athol Trollip, has declared that his party will rethink its decision to join the GNU if the DA exits the coalition government.
IOL Politics