A proposal by a senior parliamentary figure to develop a domestic policy aimed at people who, in his words, “lie about their own country” has raised a question that touches every South African: whether the right to speak freely about one’s own government is still secure.
The call came from Supra Mahumapelo, chairperson of parliament’s Portfolio Committee on International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), in an eNCA interview. He was referring to South Africans living in the United States of America (USA) who are critical of ANC policies. The Democratic Alliance (DA) has condemned the remarks in the strongest possible terms, with the party’s statement delivered by Ryan Smith MP.
For ordinary citizens, the stakes are straightforward. Every South African has the right to question and critique their government and its policies free of persecution. That principle, the DA argues, is how free democracies work, and any attempt to police what people say about their own country strikes at the foundation of the liberal democracy for which tens of thousands fought and died.
The DA’s position is that Mahumapelo’s comments amount to a dangerous attack on the constitutional right to freedom of expression within the country’s democratic system. South Africans hold varying views on the politics of the Trump administration, but the party contends that this gives neither the African National Congress (ANC) nor its MPs the right to shield domestic policies from public scrutiny, nor to target any citizen who questions how well those policies work. ANC domestic policy, in the DA’s framing, is not a party-political dictat that is beyond reproach, and the party’s MPs have no right to dictate to South Africans how and what to think. South Africa, the statement insists, is not an ANC-run dictatorship.
The public-interest dimension extends to the policies themselves, because the debate is ultimately about whether citizens may openly assess measures that shape their daily lives. The DA points to criticism of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act, arguing that the Act has failed to deliver opportunity to most poor South Africans. Since its implementation more than 20 years ago, the party notes, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita has dropped, the economy has shrunk, more South Africans are living in poverty, and state corruption has grown out of control. In the DA’s words, there is nothing untrue about genuine criticism of a domestic policy that has made South Africa poorer and the ANC richer.
The Expropriation Act is the second policy at issue. The DA maintains that criticism of this legislation is justified because it is wholly incompatible with the right to private property as enshrined in the constitution. On this view, the ANC cannot attack any South African citizen with a genuine interest in protecting and upholding the country’s most vital founding legislation, which the ANC itself helped craft.
Meanwhile, the broader concern, as the DA presents it, is what the episode reveals about the ruling party’s relationship with democratic institutions. The party says Mahumapelo’s comments put on full display the ANC’s arrogantly selective support for South Africa’s democratic principles. If the ANC wants to formally legislate the monitoring and punishment of citizens critical of their own government, the DA warns, it would have descended into anti-democratic depths not seen since 1994.
The party closes by reaffirming its own commitment to constitutionalism and the rule of law, stating that individual rights such as freedom of expression are not up for negotiation in South Africa. The ANC, it argues, has no divine right to govern in perpetuity and devoid of public criticism, and the DA will not tolerate attacks by ANC MPs on constitutional freedoms. It calls on all South Africans to exercise their constitutional right to criticise and to hold the ANC to account at the polls on 4 November.