The African National Congress (ANC) said Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi intends to conclude all negotiations and consultations, and announce the appointment of Members of the Executive Council on Wednesday.

The announcement of the Gauteng provincial cabinet was postponed for the second time on Monday night after the ANC provincial leaders were instructed by Luthuli House to postpone it.

This as the ANC and Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng failed to reach an agreement on posts in the formation of the Government of Provincial Unity (GPU).

It is believed that the ANC wanted to give the DA three MEC positions but they declined, hoping for four.

Addressing the media on the formation of the Gauteng GPU, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said that the DA was advised that if they were to be part of the GPU, they would need to meet the deadline of 14:00 on Wednesday to form a government.

He said the ANC’s stance was to separate national negotiations and agreements from provincial ones.

There have been further engagements since then, he said.

“It is our heartfelt wish that all parties, including the Democratic Alliance, will form part of a Government of Provincial Unity to serve the people of Gauteng, and South Africa. The ANC will continue to exercise its leadership role by engaging with every party, including those who are not part of the GPU, in the interests of transformation, redress, national unity, peace and stability,” said Mbalula.

He said the ANC was unable to accede to the DA's latest proposals, reiterating its position that the DA's insistence on the proportionality of 5:4:1 was a misinterpretation of the Statement of Intent and also undermined an agreed-to principle in the national negotiations that the provinces be allowed to proceed with negotiations, which had initially yielded a result in the province.

Mbalula said he wrote to the DA’s federal council chair Helen Zille on Wednesday morning asking that parties return to the negotiation table and not declare a deadlock.

The ANC reiterated its firmly held conviction that the task of setting up government in the economic heartland of the country was urgent and overdue.

It would be irresponsible to continue with this impasse, he said.

He indicated that the DA was not the only party the ANC was negotiating with on the setting up of the Gauteng GPU.

Lesufi said the ANC was working with every party in Gauteng, as guided by the Statement of Intent. He said 11 political parties have agreed to work with the ANC in Gauteng.

“What we are going to do and we have done it, all the political parties that are part of the Gauteng Legislature, all of them have agreed to work with us, including the DA. There is no single political party that said it does not want to work with us,”

He said Build One South Africa was the only party that said it would relate with the ANC based on what was on the agenda of the Legislature.

“…but ActionSA, we meet with them and they have asked for something, they have requested that they be accommodated at a certain committee,” Lesufi said. 

"Every time that we negotiate with certain political parties, the emphasis is that they want to get rid of the ANC and our posture is to defend the ANC. We do not want to enter that particular space where inside there are exchange, we want to establish a Government of Provincial Unity that will serve the citizens of Gauteng,” said Lesufi.

He assured Gauteng citizens of a cabinet that represented them.

“We are communicating the executive this evening, definitely, and this time is not going to be postponed. This evening we will have an executive council of Gauteng,” he assured.