D-day for the prosecutor to accept the offer of positions within the firm

The DA will have to decide on Sunday afternoon whether to accept or reject the ministerial positions offered to it by President Cyril Ramaphosa a few days ago.

As part of its participation in the Government of National Unity (GNU), the DA had initially demanded eleven of the thirty national cabinet positions.

However, following discussions between the party and the ANC, Ramaphosa last week offered the DA six positions in what ANC insiders billed as the party’s “final” offer.

Furthermore, the ANC has indicated that if the DA does not accept the offer by this weekend, Ramaphosa will announce the composition of the cabinet – which ANC sources say would exclude the DA.

Negotiations between the ANC and the DA reached an impasse last week after the DA accused Ramaphosa and the ANC of reneging on an earlier agreement to include the trade and industry portfolio among the six ministries the DA would chair under the GNU deal.

ALSO READ | GNU: so close to deadlock in negotiations

While DA insiders told The Witness on Sunday morning that the majority of party leaders believed the organization should accept the six ministerial posts which exclude the Trade and Industry portfolio, the party had yet to officially accepted the offer.

As of Sunday afternoon, the DA’s federal council was still meeting to assess Ramaphosa’s final offer.

A DA federal council member, who did not wish to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media on the issue, said it was “very likely” that the council would decide to approve the latest cabinet position offer.

“In politics, anything is possible, but what I can tell you is that there is consensus that the DA negotiators did a good job and that the offer made by President Cyril Ramaphosa was reasonable in the circumstances, particularly given that he was under intense pressure from the ANC-led alliance to ensure that the DA was not given influential portfolios such as Agriculture, Home Affairs and Communications.

“The prevailing opinion in the Federal Council was that the Trade and Industry portfolio, which the DA had failed to secure, should not be an obstacle to the agreement,” the source said.

Approval of the bid by the DA federal council would pave the way for Ramaphosa to announce his cabinet.