'He doesn’t take the bull by the horns’: Zille criticizes Ramaphosa, warns of GNU patronage
DA federal chairperson Helen Zille says President Ramaphosa lacks the leadership needed for tough times, criticising the GNU as a “mixed masala” and warning against coalitions with corrupt opposition parties.
Image: Kopano Tlape / GCIS
DA’s federal council chairperson Helen Zille has criticised President Cyril Ramaphosa, calling him ill-equipped to lead South Africa through its current crises, and warning that the Government of National Unity (GNU) risks entrenching the very patronage networks it should be dismantling.
In an interview on the Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh Podcast, Zille said Ramaphosa had failed to take charge during moments of national importance and lacked the leadership qualities needed in difficult times.
“Cyril Ramaphosa is not a president for hard times. Cyril Ramaphosa is a conciliator, a consensus seeker, a negotiator. He likes to be the non-executive chairman of the board,” Zille said. “When a tough decision is going to have to be taken that's going to get blowback, he's nowhere to be seen.”
According to Zille, South Africa needs a bold and decisive leader: “A leader we need for these times has to say: that is where we're going. I'm listening to all the evidence about what went wrong, why it went wrong, and how we fix it.
''Once I have filtered all of that and taken expert advice, I will say that is where we're going, that is how we're going to get there. There's going to be a lot of chunking and crying and moaning, but you've got to stay the course. That's the plan.”
Pressed by host Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh on whether she still had confidence in Ramaphosa, Zille said: “Not to be the leader in current South Africa. I don't think he's got the bull by the horns, and he hasn't got the inclination even to take the bull by the horns. He doesn't have the inclination even to get into the ring with the bull.”
Zille suggested Ramaphosa may be pushed aside by the ANC ahead of the 2029 national elections.
“I think what is going to happen is, because they have not got anyone else at the moment, they are going to muddle through until 2027, and then they will vote Cyril out, and they will then move him on out of the presidency.”
On the GNU, Zille rejected the idea that it had outright failed, but conceded that it was a messy compromise.
Zille said calling the GNU a failure is unfair, arguing that it's a better option compared to a coalition between the ANC, MK, and the EFF, which she believes would have been far worse.
Zille argued that a formal coalition between the ANC and the DA would have been more coherent. “We either have the current GNU or we have a straight-out coalition between the ANC and the DA, which I think would be a better option than the kind of mixed salad we've got at the moment, or mixed masala, or whatever you want to call it.”
Asked whether a coalition of opposition parties excluding the ANC could disrupt patronage networks, Zille dismissed the idea outright.
“If you're suggesting that the DA should get together with the MK and EFF and all the other opposition parties to form a government, then I'm telling you that would be the very worst of all the options,” she said.
Zille accused both the EFF and MK of being motivated not by clean governance, but by a desire to take over existing networks of corruption.
“The EFF is not about stopping corruption. It's about becoming the beneficiaries of corruption themselves. Ditto with MK. We've seen what Jacob Zuma did in his decimation of good governance and clean governance in South Africa. So MK and the EFF want to displace the ANC's patronage network and replace it with their own. We don't want to do that.”
She said the DA’s position was rooted in constitutional democracy and clean government.
“We believe in good, clean government. We believe in a professional public service that does not do the bidding of any party. We believe in leadership that is corruption-free and wants to serve the public, not be enriched by the public.”
Zille also reflected on past coalition experiences, including with the EFF.
“That is why we ended up in such a bad way in 2016 in Johannesburg, because we did a formal deal with the EFF. And of course I was dead opposed to it. Because the minute the EFF has supported you, that's not a free ride.
''They're going to start demanding their pound of flesh, which they absolutely did. And their pound of flesh is not good, clean, delivering governance. It is self-enrichment. Ask Mazzotti,'' she said.
She warned that small parties holding the balance of power often destabilise coalitions. “Any coalition partner that holds the balance of power is in a major role by definition. That is the big problem with having proportional representation systems without thresholds.”
Zille emphasised that aligning with ideologically incompatible parties poses a danger to South Africa’s democracy.
“We cannot go into a coalition with a party that believes, as, let me use this, Julius Malema and the EFF believe, that the leader must control the party, the party must control the state, and the state must control the economy and society. That is totalitarianism. And we all know from history how that ends up.”
hope.ntanzi@iol.co.za
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