Charting the DA and ANC’s GNU collision course with Jan Gerber

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s surprise axing of DA deputy minister Andrew Whitfield has again set the cat among the government of national unity’s (GNU) pigeons. First, the DA issued the ANC an ultimatum: fire all ministers accused of corruption or forfeit its friendly budget vote. Since then, the DA has singled out two ANC ministers in Parliament. Apart from pulling out of the National Dialogue, DA federal council chairperson Helen Zille this week personally oversaw the laying of criminal charges against Higher Education Minister Nobuhle Nkabane over a controversial process to appoint ANC-aligned members to the boards of the Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA).The party has already laid charges against Human Settlements Minister Thembi Simelane over the VBS Bank scandal.It has also threatened to take the nuclear option that could collapse the entire coalition: a potential motion of no confidence in Ramaphosa. But as senior parliamentary reporter, Jan Gerber, tells us in this edition of The Lead, this is merely a DA warning to the ANC in the GNU for now, because it’ll need to summon substantial numbers from the opposition benches to get such a motion passed. Later, in our show’s trending topic, a key suspect in the recent Gugulethu mass shooting had been released from prison just days before the killings. Finally, Kanye West, or Ye, has been denied a visa to Australia for his latest track glorifying Adolf Hitler. You can send a short voice note with your questions or thoughts on this episode to our official The Lead WhatsApp line, that’s: +27 72 562 3179. Mail your comments to thelead@24.com. Editions drop Monday through Thursday at 19:00 on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.