Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has rejected claims by the Democratic Alliance (DA) that the African National Congress (ANC) blatantly refused to consider giving them more Cabinet seats.
Lesufi says the DA initially accepted a maximum of three out of 10 Cabinet seats but later turned around to say they wanted five.
However, talks between the two parties on forming a Cabinet deadlocked and the DA did not form part of the Executive of the Gauteng Government of Provincial Unity (GPU) and withdrew from the coalition.
Lesufi says it is unfortunate that they could not reach an agreement in the end.
He says, “We said we would give you three, the only remaining thing was which portfolios. When we went back to discuss the names of the three candidates and portfolio we will allocate to them they came back to say they are withdrawing the documents. It meant that they are no longer interested in having three candidates. They then put forward a new document saying they want five.”
“The danger of that arrangement is that government was not going to function. We might have lost but the fact is that we got the highest number of votes and that must be reflected in the allocation,” Lesufi adds.
