ANCYL’s Malatji tells Ramaphosa to remove DA ministers, says EFF must ‘warm up and behave’

The ANC-DA tensions have escalated, with ANCYL president Collen Malatji demanding the immediate removal of DA ministers from the Cabinet.

ANC Youth League president Collen Malatji has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to remove DA ministers from Cabinet, saying the EFF must “start warming up and behaving” if it wants to join the Government of National Unity (GNU).

Malatji made the call during a media briefing at Luthuli House in Johannesburg on Thursday, following tensions between the ANC and the DA over the ANC’s Constitutional Court bid to reinstate 181 candidates excluded from the ballot for the November 4 local government elections.

The Constitutional Court directed the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) to include the candidates on the ballot papers.

Malatji said the ANCYL had initially believed that working with South Africa’s second-largest political party would bring stability to the GNU.

“We thought in the beginning of the Youth League that working with the second-biggest political party in South Africa would create a bit of stability in the government of national unity,” he said.

He accused the DA of creating instability within the GNU and pursuing what he described as a racist agenda.

“It has continued to serve its racist agenda, which they are funded for,” Malatji said.

He also renewed his criticism of Capitec Bank over political donations made to the DA by companies linked to the bank’s founder, Michiel Le Roux.

Malatji has previously called for a public boycott of Capitec, accusing the bank of being anti-black and opposed to broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE).

However, Le Roux has denied allegations that Capitec uses its funds to finance the DA. He has said that the donations were made by his other companies, Fynbos Ekwiteit and Fynbos Kapital, rather than the bank.

In 2022, the companies donated R15 million to the DA. The party’s August 2023 donation disclosure also recorded a further contribution from the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, a German organisation.

Malatji called on Ramaphosa to remove all DA ministers and reopen discussions with other political parties about the composition of the GNU.

“Now we are calling upon the GNU, the president (Cyril Ramaphosa), to immediately remove all ministers of the DA. And we are calling upon the president to reopen discussions with other political parties,” he said.