3 days ago
FF Plus is the latest party to pull out of the National Convention
The FF Plus announced it won't participate in the National Convention starting Friday, meant to frame the upcoming National Dialogue.
The party's leader, Corné Mulder, said the ANC has lost the credibility to be the dialogue's guardian or to participate in it due to its refusal to change its transformation policies.
The FF Plus urged other GNU partners to collaborate on a dialogue without the ANC, focusing on practical solutions for South Africans.
Another GNU partner is giving the National Dialogue the cold shoulder.
The FF Plus announced on Tuesday that it would not attend the 'ANC's planned National Convention' scheduled to start on Friday. The National Convention is meant to lay the groundwork for the larger National Dialogue.
Previously, after President Cyril Ramaphosa axed DA member Andrew Whitfield as a deputy minister, the DA withdrew from the whole National Dialogue, citing its cost, being a ' talk shop', and the ANC's election campaign.
On Friday, legacy foundations including the Thabo Mbeki Foundation, which has long been advocating for a national dialogue, indicated that they would withdraw from the National Convention and preparatory task team.
In a statement, FF Plus leader Corné Mulder said his party believes that a meaningful, thoughtful, and solution-driven dialogue is necessary in South Africa, and it would participate in such.
READ | Task team assures legacy foundations' withdrawal won't impact National Convention
'Unfortunately, it has become crystal clear that the ANC - the biggest party in the government of national unity (GNU) - is not ready for a truly thoughtful, solution-driven dialogue,' said Mulder.
He noted that ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, on behalf of the ANC's national executive committee, confirmed that it has no intention of forsaking its 'failed economic and foreign policy'.
'These failed policies are forced upon South Africa, disadvantaging everyone, in the name of transformation,' he said.
He said a party with this attitude can't be a credible guardian, through the Presidency, or participant in a national dialogue.
According to Mulder, last year's election results show that South Africans have lost trust in the ANC and no longer want it to govern alone.
Mulder said:
'This was an opportunity for the ANC to prove itself by engaging all stakeholders in South Africa in conversation. This was the opportunity for the ANC to show everybody in South Africa that it has learned from its mistakes and to acknowledge that its policies are obsolete.'
He said perhaps the time has come for a truly national dialogue, without the ANC. He said the FF Plus invites all other parties in the government of national unity (GNU) to work together on practical solutions that put the interests of South Africans first.
The FF Plus tasked its CEO, Pieter de Necker, to attend the national convention as an observer.
Apart from GNU partners, the DA and now the FF Plus, breaking ranks, several opposition parties, notably the MKP and EFF, have also been highly critical of the National Dialogue.
On Friday, after the foundations announced their withdrawal, ActionSA indicated that it would reconsider its participation in the National Convention.
Briefing the media on Monday, chairperson of the National Convention planning committee, Boichoko Ditlhake, indicated that two political parties had declined an invitation to the convention this weekend. He did not mention the political parties, but it is now apparent that it is the DA and the FF Plus.
