SACP accuses DA of planning ‘hostile takeover’ of govt
The South African Communist Party has urged President Cyril Ramaphosa to speed up the appointment of his new cabinet.
Although there is no constitutional deadline for the president to make appointments, some experts have said a long delay could impact the government’s work and spook financial markets.
The cabinet will form part of the new government of national unity, which will see the allocation of positions proportional to the number of votes a party received during the recent general elections.
The SACP, an ally of the ANC, has expressed concerns about stability and has called on Ramaphosa to exercise decisiveness against any faction resorting to "trickery, brinkmanship, and untenable demands" to gain power.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the SACP criticised the Democratic Alliance's demands for specific cabinet portfolios, as revealed in a leaked letter yesterday.
SACP national spokesperson Alex Mashilo said all GNU partners must recognise the ANC's majority vote and warn against what it’s called the DA's “hostile takeover attempts of government”.
"The DA’s trickery, hypocritical and untenable demands vindicate the SACP, which has on the record expressed strong opposition to a coalition with the DA.
“In doing so, the SACP made its preferred option of an ANC-led minority government with the features of a government of national unity clear.
“The DA’s trickery, brinkmanship and untenable demands tend towards the division of the cabinet, which would be akin to a federation of unaccountable ministers if there were to be one part of the cabinet which would operate separately and accountable to the DA as its ‘ministers’, rather than adhering to the unified whole cabinet outlined in the constitution.
“According to the constitution, the cabinet is appointed by the president, to whom the executive authority is vested. It includes the deputy president and ministers, together with whom the president exercises the executive authority," said Mashilo.
He said the DA’s demands fly in the face of the constitution and labour law.
"A party that has claimed to support ‘the separation of party and state is now vehemently demanding the exact opposite.
“It has pretended to have a problem with cadre deployment” and anti-constitutionalism, but it is now demanding that the president must accept new practices which would amount to an exclusive DA cadre deployment," Mashilo added.
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