• Disgruntled ANC members are set to protest on Thursday, staging a picket against the ruling party’s decision to engage in coalition discussions with the DA.
• Staunch ANC member Esethu Hasane said going into a coalition with the DA is tantamount to betraying those “who voted in good faith”. 
• Sources close to President Cyril Ramaphosa argued that a DA/ANC marriage “was the best option” for the country’s stability.

ANC supporters who voted for the party “in good faith” in the general election on 29 May are expected to picket in Johannesburg on Thursday morning, demanding its leaders reject going into a coalition with the “racist” DA.

Staunch ANC member Esethu Hasane who started the #NotWithDA campaign on social media platform X, took to the platform this week to express his utter rejection at the thought of partnering with the DA. He wrote, “Rha!DA Sies,” “Don’t Bed With Genocide Supporters,” and “Not in Our Name”.

Speaking to News24 on Wednesday, Hasane said the picket will take place at 08:00 on the same day that national executive committee members are scheduled to meet in Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg on Thursday. The ANC’s national working committee met late on Tuesday for an update on the talks held so far. 

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Explaining his stance, Hasane said: “In most cases than not, what informs DA policy is an ideal world that they only live in, and that does not benefit the majority of South Africans.

“I know for a fact that when they are in government, they cannot scrap these policies that already exist, but they will make sure that they are undermined or underdeveloped, so any coalition that has the DA is going to embolden the racist white company owner in South Africa to resist employment equity, minimum wage and the protection of workers because they know that at a national level, they know that they have someone who has their racist back, basically.”

Hasane believes the DA coalition “is probably a last straw” to any ANC member.

He said:

News24 reported that there is growing discontent within some structures, with some expressing that the DA was an extension of the National Party.

Briefing the media on Wednesday afternoon, SACP general-secretary Solly Mapaila campaigned against the “anti-worker, neo-liberal and corrupt state captured networks”.

“We will maintain the strategic consistency of the SACP, which is against seeking coalition agreements with the right-wing, anti-people, anti-worker, and neoliberal forces led by the DA on the one hand, and on the other hand, state capture forces that are characterised by gangster politics as well as criminality and mafia,” said Mapaila.

ROLLING COVERAGE | SACP says no to ANC coalition with DA, MK Party

Hasane, who started mobilising support on Monday, said the DA was a replacement of the National Party.

“This is definitely a betrayal [to those who voted for the ANC] because when you vote, you are not only voting for something, you are making a statement against something.”

He said he agreed with former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, who has urged the ANC to not be driven by “investor-friendly” coalitions and that most South Africans vote for parties with similar policies.

Madonsela took to X on 2 June expressing a view that: “An approach primarily driven by investor friendliness is why the ANC is in this mess in addition to the corruption worsened by state capture which affected energy security and other service delivery issues. To the ANC, please do not let the investor-friendly narrative determine your choice.” 

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Hasane added that, “after the everything that the DA has done to undermine and weaken the ANC government and ensure that it is out of power, they cannot now reward them with working with them for successfully removing them. That is what is basically happening now”.

He charged:

Hasane said he refused to sit on social media platforms and watch the party he loves “without expressing his disapproval”.

“If I have to decide later on whether I am staying or leading [sic] an ANC with the DA, then I would know that I said something. I did not only tweet about it.”

Because the ANC has not made its decision on who it will co-govern with, Hasane said he will wait for an official announcement to be made. “We just want them to know that while they are talking, we are not happy. If we have to approach people, we will approach them after they have made their decision”. 

In a statement shared on X, the #NotWiththeDA movement said it will tell NEC members to “ignore, reject, and resist attempts to influence” them towards a DA coalition agreement.

The DA was rejected by 80% of voters in May 2024 due to their regressive stance on progressive policies aimed at advancing the rights of the majority and addressing past imbalances caused by colonialism and apartheid.”

A prominent communications consultant and social commentator, who asked to remain anonymous, urged ANC leaders to stop negotiating with the “enemy”.

“They should rather spend their energy engaging progressive forces, who are interested in the liberation of the black majority.”

The woman said she opposed the marriage primarily because “the DA is a racist organisation that has no common elements with the ANC. We cannot be seen collaborating with the enemy. It goes against everything that I stand for as a person.”

She said it was important for ANC members to express their displeasure on Thursday. 

“It’s important because we started to speak out before the election that they should distance themselves from these utterances that Helen Zille and John Steenhuisen have been making, talking about courting the ANC and such, and if such discussions had taken place before the elections, we were like: ‘Well these people are making it very clear discussions are happening and therefore, you should distance yourselves from any notion of this and assure the public, ANC voters and members.’ The people deserve to know what they are getting themselves into, with voting for the ANC,” she said.

She added:

In a statement, the South African Students’ Congress (Sasco) in Gauteng said it also “rejects any coalition dining hall talks with the racist-capitalist and anti-social transformation” DA. 

READ | Ditching Ramaphosa a ‘no-go area’ for ANC in coalition talks, says Fikile Mbalula

Sasco provincial chair Yandisa Mhlelembana said: “SASCO Gauteng notes the rise of the rightwing DA and counter-revolutionary forces in ushering in a new apartheid with the same content and form yet with dissimilar faces. 

“We shall mobilise Cosas, student movements which think alike, NGOs, progressive gender formations, churches and the rest of society to counter the doomsday coalition of the old apartheid order of Tony Leon and big business.”

A source close to President Cyril Ramaphosa said the ANC/DA coalition was “the best option”.

“The president won’t allow people to interfere with institutions. He will not allow any interference with the NPA, Hawks, SARS, or SIU. It hasn’t happened throughout his Presidency. They want to remove the president because they want to cripple the NPA, SARS, SSA and other law enforcement agencies that are dealing with some of their cases. This is not about the president, it’s about accessing state resources unlawfully. The president is the wall between them and the intention of crippling these institutions.”

On coalitions, the source said the DA, ANC partnership was “the best option”.

“It’s the best option we have for the stability of the country and sustainability of the reforms that we have started. That is the best partnership we can look at, and, by the way, the initial informal reach out with the DA has not shown that the issues they want are unreasonable.

“They have not even spoken about positions. They have spoken about issues and gone straight into substance to say they would like to have a relook at how NHI is structured. That’s not unreasonable. They would like to relook some elements of the Bela Bill, that’s not unreasonable. They will probably want to agree to a common approach in terms of economic growth, that’s not unreasonable.” 

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The source went on to say the DA has not said anything so far, informally, about BEE.

“They have not said anything informally about foreign policy. What they have put on the table informally so far is not unreasonable. They have not said anything about the Basic Income Grant, and anybody in their right mind who wants to co-govern South Africa will not mess around with the BIG. The BIG is also a process that is being workshopped, and no matter what your ideologies are, you cannot be completely desensitised to the levels of poverty that exist in the country. 

“The bottom line is that right now, they have not presented on the table anything that is a deal breaker. Whereas others have put demands on the table things publicly, elements that will undermine the Constitution, the rule of law, and so you have to say then, other than the ideological disposition, in terms of facts, until formal negotiations start, so far there is nothing that indicates any bit of unreasonable [demands] from the DA.”

Briefing the media after Tuesday’s NWC meeting, ANC national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri revealed that the party has so far met with the Patriotic Alliance, IFP, DA, and NFP to negotiate forming a government.

Bhengu-Motsiri said efforts to reach out to former president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe Party had yielded no response.

The ANC has also met with its alliance parties, including the SACP and Sanco.