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SA leaders cannot differentiate between an enemy and an opponent. The results of the local elections have shown that many of our leaders construct laagers around themselves and shut out any possibility of working with those they perceive as enemies — instead of identifying opportunities and exploiting them.
This is tragic. The people of SA have given no party a clear mandate to govern. The message is clear: have some humility, introspect, and work with others.
That is not what the politicians heard. From the loud pronouncements of "I will never work with so-and-so" you would think that Andries "Dr No" Treurnicht, the white racist leader of the Conservative Party of the 1980s, had risen from his grave.
Treurnicht was notorious in the late apartheid years for opposing everything from talks with the liberation movements to a tumble in the hay between Jan and Lebo.
The first of our latter-day "no" enthusiasts is ActionSA’s Herman Mashaba. His mantra is that he will "never" work with the ANC.
The people of SA have given no party a clear mandate to govern. The message is clear: have some humility and work with others
"Never" is a terrible word except in the context of a principle or a value. The man has painted himself into a corner in which he has to stop himself working with the ANC no matter what the circumstances. Thankfully, others are not using the word "never", even as they close avenues of engagement.
Inkatha Freedom Party president Velenkosini Hlabisa says the party will not consider coalitions with parties that practise racism or corruption.
"The ANC has … let down the people of the country and the voters clearly expressed themselves when it comes to the ANC," Hlabisa says.
On Monday the DA’s Helen Zille tweeted: "The DA will not go into coalitions or governance agreements with the ANC or the EFF."
This is short-sighted. The ANC and the EFF are not the same animal. The ANC is an organisation of (alleged) thieves that President Cyril Ramaphosa and others are trying to transform — a task they are failing at spectacularly. The EFF, on the other hand, is a party of (alleged) thieves and tenderpreneurs that profits from ruinous populist rhetoric.
But the EFF is not to be laughed at. It poses an existential threat to SA because it wants to implement policies that have ruined virtually every post-colonial country in the world. Last week it said it would work with the ANC only if Ramaphosa’s party agrees to expropriation without compensation, the launch of a state bank, the nationalisation of the Reserve Bank, the forming of a state pharmaceutical company and similar policies.
Many of us have warned the ANC that should it not mend its ways, this is where it would find itself after last week’s elections. That day has dawned.
Now, let’s assume the ANC is a bunch of thieves, as alleged by Mashaba and others. What is there in its policies that is drastically different from ActionSA’s, or even the DA’s? No matter the quibbling about BEE and racism and all that, these are centre-right or centre-left parties. The policy differences between them are paper thin.
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The ANC is the DA with a liberation background. The DA and ActionSA are the ANC without former president Jacob Zuma and his corrupt Radical Economic Transformation (RET) friends.
At the moment the ANC is the skunk. Mashaba won’t touch the skunk; Zille and Hlabisa are being coy.
SA needs them to stop being so precious. The ANC is being pushed by the EFF to adopt ruinous policies that have not worked anywhere in the world. Within the ANC, the discredited RET faction is working with the EFF and others to pile pressure on the centrists to abandon prudent economic policies and adopt its wacko ideology.
The DA and ActionSA should be saying to Ramaphosa: "We will work with you if you eliminate corruption, cadre deployment and ANC interference in the workings of local government experts."
He would jump at the opportunity. The opposition parties would prove their mettle at these municipalities while he is given a free hand to sort SA out at national level. If he doesn’t, 2024 is just around the corner. He will be punished. And the DA and ActionSA will be well rewarded for showing their efficiency at local level.
It’s time to get off the high horse. The stakes are too high. SA cannot afford to fall into the hands of the EFF because of egos.
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