(Bloomberg) -- The leader of South Africa’s second-biggest political party played down the likelihood that it will exit the nation’s ruling alliance if President Cyril Ramaphosa signs off on a controversial new education law, while leaving its options open.
“The DA will not crash the government unless the government is crashing the economy or trashing the constitution,” Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen said in an address to the Cape Town Press Club on Thursday. “With 22% of the vote, the DA cannot get everything our own way inside the government,” but won’t accept a situation in which none of its priorities are implemented, he said.
Ramaphosa’s African National Congress, the DA and eight smaller rivals agreed to form a so-called government of national unity after May elections failed to produce an outright winner. The business-friendly alliance had been functioning well prior to the latest dispute, bolstering the rand and the nation’s stock market, and its unraveling would stoke political uncertainty and spook investors.
Quitting the government would hand over the reins to those who want to break the country, and the DA could resort to court action if compromise over the education bill can’t be reached — which is the preferred option, according to Steenhuisen.
“Conflict over policy in a multi-party government like the GNU is normal and indeed necessary in a democracy and it is not necessarily an existential threat to the government,” he said. “The bottom line for the DA is the economy that grows and creates jobs. If the GNU cannot or won’t do that, there is no point being part of it.”
The rand reversed losses after Steenhuisen spoke. It traded 0.1% higher at 17.8894 per dollar at 4:40 p.m. in Johannesburg, after earlier weakening to 18.0138.
“From time to time there will be issues that test the strength of the GNU, but I don’t think everybody or anybody will pull the trigger,” Khulekani Mathe, the incoming chief executive officer of lobby group Business Unity South Africa, said in an interview on Thursday. “It is in everybody’s interest for the GNU to work and that also creates a kind of fear of failure from everybody’s part.”
The DA and some other parties have objected to provisions in the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill that they say gives the education department excessive powers to determine language policy and admission criteria at government schools. Ramaphosa plans to sign the bill into law on Friday, having determined that it passes constitutional muster.
The president said he hosted a dinner for the leaders of all parties that are part of the GNU on Wednesday night, and all of them confirmed they’re committed to resolving any differences.
“There is unity of purpose, unity of commitment” to improve the lot of South Africans, he told lawmakers in Cape Town on Thursday. “I don’t work on the basis that we are going to differ to the point of parting ways.”
The unity government’s founding statement says that parties “should work together in good faith,” that there should be “sufficient consensus” on policy among its members, and that a dispute-resolution mechanism should be established that can be utilized if they fail to agree.
Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube, one of six DA members who serves in Ramaphosa’s cabinet, said her party’s opposition to the bill will have no bearing on its implementation if it’s approved.
“Ours is not to listen to the political noise out there. We are professionals,” Cape Town-based website News24 quoted her as saying. “If the bill is signed, we implement it.”
--With assistance from Paul Vecchiatto and Ntando Thukwana.
(Updates with Ramaphosa’s comments from first paragraph below story tout.)
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