DA’s Hysterical and Entitled Tantrum

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) rejects with contempt the hysterical and entitled posture adopted by the Democratic Alliance (DA) following the sitting of the Committee on the Presidency.

At the meeting convened to elect a Chairperson of the Committee on the Presidency, three candidates were nominated: Doris Mpapane (ANC), George Michalakis (DA), and Seeng Mokoena-Zondi (MK). The undeclared vote stood as follows: ANC – 5 votes, DA – 2 votes, and MK – 4 votes with ActionSA, the MK, the EFF and the United Africans Transformation Party voting together during the process. The election was not finalised and the meeting was suspended to obtain procedural clarity. It is this voting configuration — not any procedural irregularity — that has triggered the DA’s outrage and its public attack on other opposition parties.

Instead of accepting the democratic outcome of numbers in a multiparty Parliament, the DA has chosen to frame the development as the rise of a so-called “doomsday coalition,” suggesting that any alignment which does not consolidate behind its candidate is reckless or illegitimate.

The DA has once again demonstrated its belief that any institutional process in which it is not placed at the centre is automatically illegitimate, doomed, or evidence of collapse. This narrative is not new but reflects a political culture of entitlement in which the DA assumes that it must always lead, and that deviation from its preferred outcome signals chaos.

The DA currently serves in the Cabinet of the very President whose office this Committee is meant to exercise oversight over as they are part of the Government of National Unity (GNU). It is therefore irrational and politically dishonest for them to demand to chair a committee that oversees a President they actively serve alongside in the executive.

Oversight cannot be credible when it is chaired by a party that shares collective executive responsibility. It is, therefore, only logical that such a committee be chaired either by the Official Opposition or by a party that is not party to the President’s GNU arrangement.

The DA’s behaviour is consistent with its historical pattern and displays an arrogance rooted in white supremacy and “swart gevaar.” Each time it is removed from positions of power, it predicts collapse and institutional ruin. Yet experience proves otherwise such as in Tshwane, when the DA was removed from government, they warned of imminent breakdown. That collapse did not materialise, in fact, governance has improved and neglected institutions are thriving.

Whether the DA chairs the Committee, abstains from it, or withdraws entirely is irrelevant to its constitutional mandate. The Committee on the Presidency will proceed with its work as accountability does not depend on the presence or approval of the DA.

The EFF has a strong presence in student politics, particularly on university campuses.

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