Cape Town — Former minister of finance, Tito Mboweni, has criticised the formation of the new Government of National Unity (GNU) as nothing more than just a coalition government.
Mboweni, who served as minister of labour during Nelson Mandela’s tenure, and minister of finance during Ramaphosa’s tenure between 2018 and 2021, spoke to SABC News, and said he does not believe that the new GNU is characterised as such, and questioned why so many parties have joined. He compared the current GNU to the one that was established back in 1994.
“First of the environment is totally different. You must recall that, in 1994, we were coming out of the negotiations involving all the parties. During those negotiations, it was agreed that an instant constitution should be agreed upon. Therefore that constitution brought about a government of national unity. That government was a transitional government because it was the transit from the apartheid government to the new one that would be elected,” Mboweni said.
Former Governor Tito Mboweni rejected the characterization of the Coalition as GNU and questioned why so many parties are joining.
“Conceptually this is not a Government of National Unity (GNU) we are talking about, this is a coalition of parties to form a government” pic.twitter.com/sSli1QrzTX
— TK_Nala (@NalaThokozane) June 23, 2024
Mboweni added that it is a different time now as the new government is not a transitional one, but rather an attempt to start a new government, not one as a GNU.
“The context is different now. What we have now, is not a transitional government. It’s an attempt at trying to form a government. Because the elections were not decisive, no party was big enough to form a government on its own. Therefore this actually is not a government of national unity at all.” he said.
“This is a coalition of the parties which have not been able to get more than 50% of the vote, and I would like to insist on this. Conceptually, this is not a government of national unity that we are talking about. We are talking about a coalition of parties to form a government and I think that’s very important.” Mboweni.
Mboweni spoke about the dangers of the new GNU and whether there will be a clear distinction between the executive and the legislature, as well as whether parties would behave differently now that they were part of the GNU.
“I want to emphasise that we are not dealing with a GNU, we are dealing with a coalition government. The danger that we have here is the following… When you have so many parties coming together to form a government, the question is then what happens to the distinction between the executive and the legislature?”
“Will these parties in Parliament behave differently to the way they would behave because they are part of the government?” Mboweni questioned.
Is a GNU a Faustian Pact ?
— Tito Mboweni (@tito_mboweni) June 7, 2024
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
