Speaker first of key choices in any national unity government — cooperation talks continue

The National Assembly Speaker is a key post – it’s effectively the head of the legislative sphere of state. As such, the Speaker sets the tone, direction and work ethic of the National Assembly, and Parliament overall. 

It is a post the ANC – despite its 40% tally at the polls – will be reluctant to give up. In its political worldview of controlling the levers of state power, the Speaker is to the legislative sphere of the state what the president is to the executive sphere.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Elections dashboard

If the Speaker’s post goes to a political party other than the ANC, it shows the 40% party is on the back foot. Expect, also, trade-offs further down the line in, say, a key ministry like education – or an economic portfolio, except finance, which the ANC is set to keep.

Read more in Daily Maverick: From Our Archives – National Assembly Speaker post may be a negotiation tool — if a coalition is required after May poll

On the floor of the IEC’s national results centre – when the results emerged with no clear winner – the talk was of a confidence-and-supply agreement on specific issues and priorities. 

The ANC would retain executive posts and the DA and IFP, Parliament. But that prospect was overtaken when ANC alliance partners Cosatu and the South African Communist Party came out to oppose cooperation with the DA, citing its anti-transformation character.

https://youtu.be/xERBQnDVfxs

In a fudgy compromise, the ANC National Executive Committee on 6 June decided a national unity government would be the best option. 

What has emerged since is that the ANC is intent on retaining the security cluster ministries – police, defence, state security and home affairs – perhaps in the belief that control of those portfolios ensured the party’s security in government office. 

Also up for retention by the ANC are related parliamentary committees, including the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence.

Historically, the ANC was vexed that the now-late IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi held Home Affairs for a decade. To counter this, the ANC appointed a series of directors-general with intelligence backgrounds to that portfolio.

That tactic may yet again surface in ministerial portfolios ceded to other political parties in the proposed national unity government.

But exactly what would be available to other political parties? 

The ANC previously accommodated opposition parties in Tourism – current minister Patricia de Lille is from Good – while Science and Technology in 2001 was held by Azapo boss Mosibudi Mangena.

If the current thinking follows those lines, political parties other than the ANC may also be eligible for Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Small Business Development as well as Sport, Arts and Culture. 

Perennial stepchild, Public Works – also once held by De Lille – may be another option for a minister not from the ANC, given the headaches of a portfolio responsible for thousands of state buildings, from offices and courts to hospitals.

A pickle would be Parliament’s public spending watchdog, the Standing Committee on Public Accounts. Traditionally held by an opposition MP, would it go to the EFF if it decided to remain on the opposition benches while the DA and IFP were part of the national unity government?

Less complicated is the National Council of Provinces. Given that the ANC has secured at least six provinces – and possibly even seven or eight, depending on cooperation deals in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng – the chairperson and deputy are likely to come from the ANC. 

Wish lists and red lines

Common ground