Mandy Wiener, Pieter du Toit, Qaanitah Hunter and Tara Roos at the News24 breakfast, Franschoek literary festival.

• At the Franschhoek Literary Festival, journalists and authors assessed South Africa’s government of national unity, describing it as a fragile but necessary arrangement.
• The government of national unity came under scrutiny during a panel discussion featuring Mandy Wiener, Qaanitah Hunter, and Tara Roos.
• With municipal elections on the horizon, political analysts are divided over who will lead Johannesburg, with Loyiso Masuku, Herman Mashaba, and Helen Zille all in the frame.

At the first panel of this year’s Franschhoek Literary Festival, author and broadcast journalist Mandy Wiener described the government of national unity (GNU) as an “unhappy marriage where the parents stay together for the kids”.

Wiener, who published her book The Deal: Inside the Talks that shaped South Africa’s Future in 2025, was interviewed by News24’s assistant editor for investigations, Pieter du Toit, alongside journalists Qaanitah Hunter and Tara Roos.

Looking at the achievements and future of the current GNU formation, Wiener said there had been some successes, but that economic growth had remained sluggish, and unemployment had remained high.

“We did get off the grey list, our sovereign credit rating has improved, Operation Vulindlela is performing, improving our rail and port capabilities.”

She believed the GNU, with the ANC and DA as the main partners, would remain intact.

“The alternative is too horrific to contemplate.” Wiener referred to the economic consequences of parties such as the EFF and MK Party entering the government.

“Ask [DA leader] Geordin Hill-Lewis about the calls he’s received over the weekend, about people asking him not to impeach President [Cyril] Ramaphosa.”

Hill-Lewis told journalists he was being lobbied not to impeach Ramaphosa but said the DA would vote for “truth and integrity”.

Hunter urged the GNU to start thinking about legislative reform to take the country forward. “You need a complete reimagination of policy… who is going to take responsibility for this? They stole R2 billion in Ekurhuleni under an EFF MMC, and we didn’t know about it!”

She suggested that the GNU agree on basic needs, such as local government service delivery, the water crisis, and the need for a Transformation Fund, which she described as a “badly-worded PowerPoint presentation”.

Panellists agreed that the success of the GNU should be measured in economic growth and job creation. Very little of this was visible yet, but DA ministers were busy with “clean-up campaigns”, said Wiener, referring to the textbook scandal in the basic education department and the withdrawal of the government’s AI policy by Minister Solly Malatsi.

Du Toit asked the panel if the DA was succeeding in the GNU.

Wiener said Ashor Sarupen, the DA’s deputy minister of finance, was “unsung” and that she was seeing a “slow progression of change” in National Treasury. “There is a strong showing from DA ministers on international trade. [Agriculture Minister John] Steenhuisen is signing new fruit export deals.”

Roos, the author of Where To From Here? Populism and coalition politics in South Africa, said the DA, entered the GNU on the back foot because Ramaphosa used his “Codesa negotiating skills” to hand them only six Cabinet positions, when they should have received between 10 and 12. “Leon Schreiber is the best-performing DA minister in home affairs, followed by John Steenhuisen with all the agriculture deals he has made.”

According to Hunter, the DA has shown that effective governance is possible, as Schreiber has demonstrated at home affairs.

She chuckled that the DA had its own faction battles “because real power is on the table”.

Hunter said the DA had elected a young, coherent leadership. “It is not about counting white or black heads. The DA has given us its leadership, and the electorate will decide. I like the way our politics is going.”

Turning to the municipal elections, Du Toit, who authored The Dark Prince on Deputy President Paul Mashatile, asked panellists who they thought the next mayor of Johannesburg would be. Although she heard many black, middle-class voters saying that they didn’t like Helen Zille but would vote for her, Wiener said she reckoned that the ANC’s Loyiso Masuku would be mayor.

Roos said she expected ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba to become Johannesburg mayor if the ANC, EFF, and ActionSA could make a deal across several metros. “The ANC won’t survive another mayor in Jo’burg, that’s why I think it will be Mashaba”.

Hunter said Zille could be mayor if she succeeded in getting partners on board.

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