DA leader John Steenhuisen has responded to former president Thabo Mbeki’s open letter regarding the national dialogue.
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen has written off the upcoming national dialogue as an ANC campaign event.
The Minister of Agriculture in the government of national unity (GNU) wrote an open letter to Thabo Mbeki in response to the former president’s own letter released earlier this week.
The DA withdrew from the national dialogue last weekend after President Cyril Ramaphosa ignored the party’s ultimatum over the removal of Andrew Whitfield from his deputy minster role.
National impasse
Mbeki earlier this week called the refusal to participate in the national dialogue “misplaced and very strange indeed”, while daring the DA to leave the GNU.
He also took aim at Helen Zille, claiming the DA’s federal chair had an “arrogant and contemptuous view” of those who did not support her party.
Steenhuisen wrote an open reply to the former president on Friday wishing to explain why the DA has chosen to walk away from the national dialogue.
He stated that Whitfield’s actions — taking an international trip without permission — was “far less egregious than the moral and ethical transgressions” of other ANC members of cabinet.
“This double standard has been in place since the formation of the GNU. The ANC has ignored every important clause of the jointly signed statement of intent,” wrote Steenhuisen
Electioneering claim
The DA leader praised Mbeki for his Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) policy from the early 2000s, noting that it was unpopular with ANC alliance partners at the time.
“You stood firm and exercised your mandate to the benefit of the country,” he wrote.
However, Steenhuisen attacked the ANC’s performance at the last year’s national election, saying that Mbeki proposed the national dialogue as a way to improve the ANC’s image with voters.
Steenhuisen reiterated the DA’s stance that the national dialogue was an ANC campaign tool needed to halt the party’s electoral decline.
“We regard the proposed national dialogue, dominated as it is by foundations linked to the ANC, as a political manoeuvre aimed at placing a band-aid on the ANC’s electoral wound,” he wrote.
‘A talking nation is a thinking nation’
A national dialogue planning workshop began this week in preparation for the main event scheduled for mid-August.
“A national dialogue is not just a talk shop. It’s a platform where the people have a real voice. It’s about listening to the lived experiences of citizens and acting on them,” stated the Thabo Mbeki Foundation on Saturday.
“This dialogue must go beyond speeches and meetings. A talking nation is a thinking nation. A talking nation is an empowered nation.”
Mbeki confirmed in his letter to Steenhuisen that Treasury would pay for the national dialogue, with the bill reportedly around R700 million.
“We are determined to make sure that the ANC’s abuse of public funds for its own purposes is not perpetuated in the run-up to the 2026 local government elections,” Steenhuisen concluded.
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