Resistance in the ANC grew against a grand coalition with the DA, 15 young party leaders protested outside Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg, where the governing party’s leadership met to decide which way to go in power-sharing talks.
I spoke to the organiser of the #NotWithTheDA protest, Esethu Hasane. He is a young ANC leader and also a director in the Department of Transport.
Question: When was the #NotWithTheDA campaign started because it seemed quite well organised?
Answer: I started it on Monday, and I called a couple of friends to come along. None of them came along. (Communications company owner) Kay Sexwale and (Johannesburg mayor’s adviser) Thuthu Zuma reached out and said they would come, and they did. I was concerned that I might be seen as someone sent by the SG because I am associated with the SG (ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula). I appreciated that we can’t be accused of being aligned with a particular view because we are such different members of the ANC.
Question: On Monday (3 June), what incensed you enough to start a campaign?
Answer: I was irritated by media reports that seemed like a promotion. On that specific day, News24 published four or five articles in favour of an ANC-DA coalition. I thought we should provide an alternative voice.
Question: In substance, why are you so opposed to it?
Answer: I was a student leader at UCT. I come from Nzwakazi, eNgqeleni in rural Eastern Cape. I am black. Policies like affirmative action linked my race, my blackness, to enable me to go there (to UCT). If not for that (policy), I would have fallen short. That enabled me to study politics. I have a major in media and international relations. I have felt the great impact of the role of redress legislation in peoples’ lives.
My first protest at UCT was against Daso (the Democratic Alliance Student Organisation). They wanted race to be removed as a criterion for admission. The DA has rejected a number of policies brought by the ANC at Parliament. These policies have been supported by the EFF, and UDM, but the DA has the highest record of rejecting (them). The DA has sought to position itself as a replacement and alternative to the now-defunct National Party. It makes no sense to get into bed with them.
The ANC understood the need to create a national identity and national unity.
The reason the ANC has failed, let alone the impact of MK and EFF, is that it has not addressed economic imbalances. We need to transform the economy and share the country’s wealth. The DA resists this and protects the (status quo) economy.
Question: Are there other issues that make you stand so clearly against a coalition with the DA?
Answer: I have been a campaigner and volunteer for the ANC since the 2014 (election). At the time, convincing people to campaign for the ANC was much easier. Since 2021, it has become difficult to get people to vote: people are not working, (electricity) transformers have not been replaced, roads have potholes, and they are not working. This time around, I knew this was going to happen. Even in a family setting, I could not speak to my brother (who is unemployed) and ask him to vote for the ANC. I could not ask my sister and I felt the mood of the country. I wasn’t surprised (by the result).
The DA has had a chance to govern in Johannesburg. They are in charge in Tshwane where I live. So, outside the economy, there are delivery issues (related to their capacity to deliver). They easily make an argument they govern well in Western Cape. But the people in Gugulethu (Cape Town) or Hammanskraal (Tshwane) they wouldn’t say the same thing about the DA.
There has been a lot of scare-mongering that the EFF, MK, PA are a threat to the Constitution. As a queer South African, I don’t want to be governed by African traditional law (as MK says). The DA itself wants to make constitutional changes related to employment equity, affirmative action, BEE, student funding and national health insurance. All those policies emanate from the Constitution. When the DA says it wants to scrap BEE, that clearly indicates that they want to amend the Constitution. The same thing with the minimum wage. No one (in the media) is saying these are also constitutional changes. This is because investors get happy about these.
Question: When you speak about the condition of black lives, you don’t attribute responsibility to the ANC, which has been in power for 30 years?
Answer: I represent the government. I have signed a contract. (Hasane is a director in the Transport Department). In 1994, the ANC made a lot of promises. (In addressing) some of those promises like sanitation, water, electricity, housing, the ANC has had successes. Whether the black child gets a good education is still in question. Land is not adequately addressed. The economy has not changed. The DA does not see this.
Question: Who then would be a good partner for the ANC to co-govern with?
Answer: I am not going to answer that. All 15 of us who protested want the DA excluded, and we have different ideas about power sharing. The DA is a powerful force, and they can undermine change.
Question: Is it just 15 of you who believe this? You’re close to some pretty powerful people in the ANC. Do you think you are representing a larger body of ANC members?
Answer: We drove here (to Birchwood Hotel, Boksburg). We don’t have the resources to bus in people. It would have been a different story if it had been in Soweto. DM