News24 | Mokonyane: GNU no longer a source of unity for South Africa, DA has moved on

ANC first deputy secretary-general Nomvula Mokonyane believes the GNU no longer serves South Africans in its current form.

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• The ANC’s Nomvula Mokonyane has revealed coalition challenges following the 2024 elections in an interview with News24’s video podcast.
• Mokonyane also shared the toll the loss by the ANC had on her.
• The first deputy secretary-general of the ANC has criticised the GNU, claiming it no longer serves the country’s unity and stability.

ANC first deputy secretary-general Nomvula Mokonyane believes the government of national unity (GNU) is no longer a source of unity or working for the good of the country.

Mokonyane further believes that the DA, the second-largest party in the GNU, has long moved on from the partnership and has done everything to undermine the statement of intent that governed the union.

Mokonyane made these revelations in a sit-down interview on News24’s video podcast, Real Politiki, hosted by deputy politics editor Bongekile Macupe and politics journalist Siyamtanda Capa.

In the candid interview, Mokonyane also revealed that, in hindsight, she does not think the country should have opted for the GNU after her party, the ANC, lost its status as a ruling party following the May 2024 election.

Mokonyane said:

… As to whether it (GNU) is still relevant, that is a story for another day. I am sitting here, I’ve got a strong view that maybe a minority government could have been the right … I don’t know. We could have a minority government, or the risk could have been a rerun of the elections.

Following the 2024 elections, the ANC plummeted to just 40.18% of the vote but still came out as the party with the largest share and therefore led the negotiations in forming a coalition government.

Mokonyane told Capa and Macupe that the party naively thought it would be easy to get cooperation from the EFF and MK Party (MKP) and form a government. But it was not so.

“You know the EFF rejected us. JZ’s (MKP president Jacob Zuma) people played games, you know what he is doing overnight… I mean we had more than four delegations and more than four leaders of the MKP that we spoke to. We were supposed to meet in Cape Town and they never pitched. We were sure that we were going to work with the MK, we can work with the EFF, we can work with IFP and stuff, and they rejected us,” she said.

The IFP, however, is part of the GNU.

Mokonyane shared that the ANC thought that if the DA were to end up being part of the coalition, it could have been under “stringent conditions” because the ANC, EFF, IFP and MKP would have made a “formidable group”.

She said:

But we got rejected because people wanted the impossible. You cannot come and negotiate and say first, ‘Not Cyril’. That is a non-starter, that’s silly. You cannot start negotiations and say we need to be the deputy president or the minister of finance.

According to reports, it is the MKP that demanded the removal of President Cyril Ramaphosa, while the EFF wanted to be given the deputy president and minister of finance positions.

“For now, this thing called GNU has become, of late, not a source of unity for the good of South Africa,” said Mokonyane. “These are people who are not patriotic. Theirs is about politics, defending the base, pleasing the white Afrikaner [voters] that have moved from the DA to the Freedom Front.”

READ | GNU's first three months: Laying the groundwork for the next five years

She, however, said that despite what has played out – including how the DA has opposed government policies – the ANC can still be proud that it was able to stabilise the country after the elections.

“The good thing that we did was to stabilise the country immediately, for me that is it. The regret is that no one other than the ANC was genuine to find the way forward. The DA is gone from the GNU; they are campaigning now. That is what they are doing.

“Their business is no longer about those six priorities of the statement of intent being protected. They are no longer interested in protecting the Constitution because we said foreign policy, the Constitution and the presidency are non-negotiable. They are beating all those things now,” she said.

Mokonyane also opened up about the personal toll the ANC’s electoral loss took on her, revealing that she had been so heavily affected that she sought therapy.

For more Real Politiki episodes, visit News24 | Real Politiki