GNU clearing house finally adopts terms of reference, including ‘agree to disagree’ clause

The Government of National Unity’s (GNU’s) clearing house mechanism, set up to iron out policy disagreements in the 10-party coalition, finally has its terms of reference (ToR).

The adoption of the ToR comes more than a year after the multiparty, issue-specific negotiating committee was established in September 2024. The clearing house was set up to deal with disputes around thorny issues such as the contested clauses of the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act and the implementation of the contentious National Health Insurance (NHI) Act.

The effectiveness of this mechanism in resolving disputes could make or break the coalition government, Daily Maverick reported.

In a statement on Wednesday, 29 October, the chairperson of the clearing house, Deputy President Paul Mashatile, announced the adoption of the ToR, after draft ToR were first tabled in October 2024.

“The GNU clearing house mechanism meeting today received a report from the working group that was mandated to review and finalise the draft terms of reference,” said Mashatile’s spokesperson, Keith Khoza.

“The draft ToR document was first presented in October 2024. Due to disagreements, the secretariat engaged Professor Jaap de Visser for legal refinement, with key disagreements centred around deadlock-breaking mechanisms and clauses from the GNU Statement of Intent (especially clauses 18 and 19.3).”

Read more: Mashatile’s GNU clearing-house meeting aims to resolve policy disputes

These clauses deal with the need for consensus on issues in the GNU. The Statement of Intent provides that “in instances where sufficient consensus is not reached”, parties should raise disputes within the deadlock-breaking mechanisms created for this purpose, ie, the clearing house.

Deputy President Shipokosa @PMashatile today, 29 October 2025, in his capacity as the Chairperson of the Government of National Unity (GNU) Clearing House Mechanism, convened a virtual meeting of the structure, that finally adopted its Terms of Reference. https://t.co/q1LAJUIbA3 pic.twitter.com/fg25pa7kqn

— The Presidency 🇿🇦 (@PresidencyZA) October 29, 2025

Khoza said a working group, chaired by the deputy minister of justice and constitutional development, Andries Nel, and comprising representatives from the DA, Rise Mzansi and PAC, was formed to resolve these issues.

Khoza said submissions for the draft ToR were received from the Good Party, Al Jama-ah, the DA and the UDM.

He added that the working group was given two weeks to finalise its work and report back to the clearing house. The working group did the following:

• It developed a dispute resolution process flow chart that clarifies the decision-making process of the clearing house;
• It clarified that the clearing house is a recommending body, not a decision-making one;
• It proposed monthly meetings;
• It proposed that unresolved issues be referred to the political leaders’ forum, not the President; and
• It supported a resolution to “agree to disagree” when consensus fails.

“Having noted the above, the GNU clearing house mechanism agreed that the Statement of Intent is foundational to the work of the GNU clearing house and equally agreed that sufficient consensus applies only to decision-making bodies (GNU and political leaders’ forum), not the clearing house. Lastly, it agreed on referral procedures and the non-inclusion of provincial/local government matters,” said Khoza.

“The GNU clearing house mechanism appreciated the work of the working group and the secretariat and agreed that the adopted ToRs will be presented to the meeting of the political leaders’ forum for ratification.”

Read more: The GNU at one — serial crises and continual turmoil are the order of the day

Khoza said the clearing house also agreed that future concerns should be addressed through amendments, “as the adopted document is now a living document”.

The adoption of the ToR comes ahead of the 2025 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement next month.

‘Agree to disagree’ 

According to the final ToR, the “agree to disagree” resolution, which arises when consensus fails, “does not constitute a decision of the political parties in the GNU in respect of the specific matter referred to the clearing house.

“It is simply an outcome of the consideration of that matter by the clearing house, and a report regarding such outcome is to be submitted to the political leaders’ forum … for further consideration of the matter.”

According to the ToR, an “agree to disagree” resolution “shall contain a record of disagreement of one or more parties in the GNU with a resolution of any of the GNU key structures, or with a resolution of Cabinet”, and a confirmation that the disagreement “does not signal the withdrawal from the GNU by the parties” that recorded their disagreement.

The resolution of “agree to disagree” in the final ToR comes after the clearing house failed to reach consensus on the timeline for implementation of sections 4 and 5 of the Bela Act in December last year. The committee was unable to present a single approach to President Cyril Ramaphosa on how to resolve the issue, as he had requested.

‘Sufficient consensus’ 

DA spokesperson Willie Aucamp said the DA “is happy that, after thorough debate, there is no longer any threat” that the Statement of Intent, which was signed when the GNU was formed, “can be sidelined”.

“The original draft document had the potential that the role of the ‘political leaders’ forum’, where the ‘sufficient consensus’ clause does apply, could be sidelined. The terms of reference now prevent that from happening,” he said.

“After a constructive debate and good cooperation in the working committee, the role of the clearing house as a recommending body was confirmed. The clearing house is therefore not a decision-making body. The issue of ‘sufficient consensus’ within the clearing house is therefore no longer a concern as the clearing house’s role cannot be abused,” he added.

Read more: The fragility of the Government of National Unity — the risk is palpable

Rise Mzansi’s Makashule Gana, who was the party’s representative on the working group, said the party was satisfied with the ToR.

“It was important to get every party in the GNU to agree to the terms,” he said.

Asked by Daily Maverick how different the final ToR were to those that were initially drafted, Gana said: “We cleaned up the document and removed ambiguities. We have also introduced a process flow diagram, [and] reaffirmed the position of the clearing house as the working committee of the [political leaders’ forum].”

The Good party’s secretary-general, Brett Herron, said the clearing house mechanism was supposed to have adopted the ToR when the GNU was formed. However, this was delayed because of the infighting within the coalition government over issues such as Bela.

He added that the clearing house didn’t hold enough meetings this year, but that the frequent meetings now planned would help all parties find “common ground”, which would lead to the implementation of a programme of action for the GNU.

The planned meetings were “essential to a flow of communications”, which could have prevented talks breaking down — as seen during this year’s Budget crisis — and the often public spats between the DA and ANC.

Daily Maverick asked the ANC for comment, but had not received a response by the time of publication. DM