ANALYSIS | 15 October 2026

The ANC and DA GNU dispute raises an uncomfortable question: can parties govern together while fighting each other in court? Sharing Cabinet seats does not erase their competing interests, but recurring confrontations put the purpose of their partnership under scrutiny.

What sparked the latest ANC and DA GNU dispute?

According to IOL’s report on 15 October, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula wants the DA’s participation in the Government of National Unity reviewed after it opposed the ANC’s candidate-list court challenge. A demand for a review is not a decision to remove the DA from government.

Meanwhile, EWN reported that the Constitutional Court ordered the inclusion of 181 ANC candidates in six municipalities for the 4 November local elections. The dispute concerned nominations captured on the IEC’s system but not finalised through its submission process. The court’s detailed reasons were still to follow when EWN reported.

Does cooperation require political loyalty?

There is a reasonable argument for expecting governing partners to cooperate. A government needs enough agreement to pass decisions, implement plans and accept responsibility when delivery falls short. Constant public threats can make that work harder.

However, cooperation cannot sensibly mean automatic support for every partner’s legal position. Parties retain separate identities and answer to different voters. A court challenge can test a disputed rule without ending every other area of cooperation.

The sharper question is where the partners draw that boundary. If every disagreement becomes a test of whether a party belongs in government, the arrangement risks becoming permanently conditional. Yet if disagreements carry no consequences at all, a shared programme may become difficult to enforce.

Staying has costs. Leaving has costs too.

For the DA, remaining in government offers a route to influence decisions. It also exposes the party to criticism about decisions it opposes but cannot prevent. Leaving could make its opposition role clearer, while reducing its direct influence over the executive.

For the ANC, working with a rival requires accepting that a governing partner may also be an electoral competitor. That tension becomes especially visible when the disagreement concerns who can contest an election.

Neither staying nor leaving guarantees better government. The useful test is what either choice would change: which decisions could be improved, which commitments could be delivered and who would take responsibility for the results?

What should readers judge?

Political victories produce powerful headlines. For households and businesses, the lasting measure is whether the governing arrangement can make decisions and carry them through. A coalition can survive disagreement. Its harder task is turning disagreement into workable decisions.

Have your say: Should the DA stay in the GNU and challenge the ANC from within, or leave and become the opposition? What would either choice improve?

This article is analysis. The discussion of political trade-offs is SA Business Lens’s assessment, separate from the attributed reporting above.

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