The party briefed the media in Johannesburg on Tuesday and slammed President Cyril Ramaphosa for signing the expropriation bill into law without consulting coalition partners.
DA Leader John Steenhuisen said the ANC wrongly regarded the GNU as an extension of the sixth administration in which the liberation movement had a clear majority.
“We need to dispel the misconception that this is an extension of the sixth administration, its not, this is a new government altogether,” said Steenhuisen.
He said the ANC also confused being the largest party in the coalition into being a majority party.
“We are all minorities in the GNU, there’s no majority party so you can’t do things as if you were a minority party. You have to take the views of your allies into consideration, you can’t just treat your partners like that especially the second biggest,” said Steenhuisen.
The party has declared a formal dispute to be entertained through the GNU’s so-called ‘clearing house’ a conflict resolution mechanism set up by the parties that constitute the GNU.
The DA said it was not about to walk out of the coalition despite being frustrated.
“The GNU is the most precious thing for South Africa and for the DA right now so we have to keep putting in the work, you would have seen how DA ministers in government are committed to getting things done to stabilise the economy and attract investment that will create jobs,” said Steenhuisen.
The expropriation bill, Bela Act and and the National Health Insurance were all passed in the sixth administration but were only signed into law by Ramaphosa under the 7th administration ( GNU).
The DA said there were several other parties in the GNU opposed to the three pieces of transformative legislation and argued they can’t simply be ignored.
“One of them likened it to being stepped in the back,” said Steenhuisen about a comment by Patriotic Alliance leader Gayton McKenzie who is serving in the GNU as minister of sports, arts, and culture and has rejected all three laws and expressed disappointment in not being consulted by the president.
Meanwhile the Pan Africanist Congress whose President Mzwanele Nyhonso heads the land and agriculture ministry in the GNU has vowed to defend the expropriation bill, a commitment also made by the EFF which said the current bill is watered down and may not achieve restitution rapidly yet is worth defending.