We will consider all our options: Helen Zille as DA goes to court on budget

Whether the DA remains in or quits the GNU will be a carefully considered decision weighing all options and not a rushed one.

This is according to DA federal council chair Helen Zille after the ANC lobbied parties outside the GNU to help it pass its controversial budget on Wednesday while the blue party objected.

This has intensified calls in the ANC for its leaders to expel the DA from the GNU, with some arguing it was untenable for Zille's party to remain in a government whose budget it rejected. 

Similarly, some in the DA argue it's time for their party to exit the arrangement, arguing the ANC has been undermining them for the past eight months since the formation of the unity government.

DA executives were locked in a meeting on Thursday to decide its fate within the GNU.

“We are not rushing into anything. We will consider all the options, look at all the consequences, try to predict all the unintended consequences and try to make a rational decision on the basis of those at the right time,” said Zille on the stairs of the Western Cape High Court.

She was there to submit papers in a DA court bid to challenge the legality of parliamentary processes followed before the adoption of the fiscal framework voted on Wednesday.

“We are here in a place we did not want to be. In fact, if every parliamentarian had done their job, we would have been able to work this issue through parliamentary processes that do not require us to take our fallback position, which is going to court.

“The DA has been around the block enough to know it never can predict the outcome of a court case, but this is our plan B. We were hoping that we were going to get the ANC to compromise and act honourably but they did not do that — instead they did some back room deals with parties that are not even in the GNU. We will push them back, yet again, in the interests of South Africans.”

Zille rejected criticism that the DA had used the budget talks to attempt to push through policies that had nothing to do with the budget.

“This is about budget and a wider economic package. Because we are here to get the ANC to share power, most crucially on an economic plan to save South Africa — if the ANC wants to do something which we reject, like a 2% VAT increase like it was initially, and they say we will give up on that, we are able to say we want XYZ because that's how negotiations work.”

The party chair conceded that the DA is well aware that participation in a coalition requires compromise and backed their negotiation tactics.

“Yes, you can't get it all. But the ANC also can't get it all. They are refusing, point blank, to share power. The other parties in the GNU are just supporting and backing the ANC's plan using their votes, that's not the DA. We are there because we promised South Africans that we were going to rescue South Africa, which crucially means getting the economy to start growing again. 

“That is why the plan to grow the economy was central to the VAT negotiations.”

Zille did not respond to whether the court bid is symbolic of the DA signing its divorce papers from the GNU, deferring the mooted break-up to a discussion to be held by the party's bosses on Thursday.

“The federal executive will be meeting today. We will consider every aspect of this case, strategy, and tactics. We know that whatever decision we take will have profound implications for our economy and South Africa.”

Zille took a swipe at Action SA, which is part of the cohort of parties which saved the ANC's budget day.

“All of those people who are under the mistaken illusion that Action SA has stopped VAT are deluded. In fact, the fiscal framework as passed by parliament on Wednesday includes a VAT increase and the notice put out by parliament itself said that the increase comes into effect in May. If Action SA believes they have stopped it, they are living in cloud cuckooland,” said Zille.

She believes the DA was inches away from victory before the ANC shopped around for votes.

“We came within a whisker of achieving that until the point where smaller parties, which rejected the GNU when we set it up under very difficult circumstances, jumped ship and allowed the ANC to increase your VAT without any conditions whatsoever.

“We are not going to sit there and allow that to happen. We are not in the GNU for blue lights, cars, ministerial homes or status — we are in it for one sole purpose, that is to get South Africa's economy to grow at the rate that it needs to grow to absorb more people into productive employment and reduce poverty.”

The DA court bid seeks a two-part relief. One, that the adoption of the fiscal framework report of the finance committee on Tuesday be declared null and void because of procedural flaws. In part two, the DA wants the VAT Act declared unconstitutional, alleging it gives the minister arbitrary powers to enforce a VAT increase without taking it through parliament and without the fiscal framework or any other legislation required passed in parliament.

“It gives the minister legislative powers to pass laws simply by making a statement and we know that this is unconstitutional,” said Zille.

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