GNU Nothing More Than a 'Tactical Intervention' That Will Change - Mbalula

Recently, the ANC’s alliance partner, the South African Communist Party, criticised the former liberation movement for getting into bed with organisations at odds with its ideologies. 

African National Congress (ANC) secretary general Fikile Mbalula during a media briefing at the National Results Operation Centre in Midrand on 2 June 2024, Picture: X/@MbalulaFikile

JOHANNESBURG - The African National Congress (ANC) says the Government of National Unity (GNU) is not a permanent arrangement, and that it will change over time. 

Following the ANC’s loss of national majority for the first time in the recent elections, the party formed a government with 10 parties represented in Parliament. 

Recently, the ANC’s alliance partner, the South African Communist Party (SACP), criticised the former liberation movement for getting into bed with organisations at odds with its ideologies. 

In a media briefing on Monday, ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula said this arrangement was forced on the party by the electoral results. 

“What is Government of National Unity? It’s a tactical intervention, it's not permanent. It can change at some point and become something else. At the end of the day, we are not locking ourselves in the GNU permanently. That GNU will change over time, and that’s what the ANC will be working on.”

Mbalula said the party will be engaging with SACP Secretary General Solly Mapaila following his recent comments suggesting there is a dominant neo-liberal faction in the ANC that pushed for the GNU.

“The question of labelling doesn’t assist a political discussion or an engagement, but to that extent, even in our tweets, we have been very much circumspect and making a point that if we play to the gallery and differ like not allies and differ like enemies, it cannot be correct.”