When Bongani Baloyi became mayor of the Midvaal municipality in Gauteng in 2013, he chose not to do what many in his position in South Africa typically do: fire competent officials, bring “our own people” (party cadres) into positions they aren’t qualified for, and terminate the contracts of service providers who were doing a great job. Baloyi has said that when he took office (he was 26 at the time), he “inherited a financially stable municipality” that had “a commitment to good governance”.
Based on that, he improved Midvaal into one of the most successful municipal administrations in the country. In a landscape where every year we lament the collapse of municipalities, Midvaal was the darling of the auditor-general, achieving six consecutive unqualified audits.
His tenure was so reassuring to investors that Heineken, owner of a brewery in the municipality, announced in 2019 that it would invest R1bn to enlarge its plant from 5.3-million hectolitres to 7.5-million hectolitres. By November 2021, Midvaal was lauded by Ratings Afrika, PMR.africa and the Gauteng City-Region Observatory as the province’s best-performing municipality.
After leaving office in 2021, Baloyi should have been the poster boy of clean governance for the DA. He should have been headed for a significant role in parliament. Instead, he left to join Herman Mashaba’s ActionSA. Within months, he had departed Mashaba’s posse. He has now formed his own party.
Why? Why couldn’t he stay in the DA or ActionSA — parties that are virtually the same? We are awash with political parties in South Africa. We are awash with talented politicians — and chancers and grifters, to be sure — who are carving new political paths instead of working within the structures that reared them. Could other leaders in ActionSA not have intervened between Mashaba and Baloyi to mend fences?
Then there is the DA, which has become a sausage machine of disgruntled politicians. How is South Africa’s biggest opposition party supposed to solve the country’s problems when it cannot keep its rising stars? Former DA chief Mmusi Maimane is now leading a coalition of independents, Patricia de Lille’s GOOD split from the DA and is being gently but effectively ingested by the ANC, while former DA luminaries such as Mbali Ntuli, Phumzile van Damme, Lindiwe Mazibuko and others are in the nongovernmental sector, doing work that should be done in the party.
We have a problem, Houston, and it’s called opposition fragmentation
We have a problem, Houston, and it’s called opposition fragmentation. In 1994, 19 parties contested general elections. In 2019, 48 parties contested. In April the Electoral Commission of South Africa said more than 200 political parties can be expected to contest next year’s general elections.
Many of these parties are similar. The only difference is the ego standing in front. The ACDP, for example, probably differs from ActionSA on issues such as abortion, but mostly the policies of both parties are practically the same.
Those old horses of the struggle, the PAC and Azapo, should not bother registering to be elected: the EFF encapsulates everything they stand for. Ace Magashule and Carl Niehaus (remember them?) should abandon the circuses they call parties and join the EFF as well. Why should all these people be “leading” their own parties and wasting precious votes in next year’s election? It’s mostly ego with no intention to serve.
The fragmentation of the opposition will prolong the dominance of the ANC, something all these opposition players claim they want to stop. If the ANC polls below 50% next year, it will have tens of eager, minuscule parties begging President Cyril Ramaphosa to include them in a coalition.
Sure, we need variety in our politics, but a large chunk of what is now emerging makes no sense and is detrimental to the advancement of our democracy.
In February 2014 donors to the DA and Agang South Africa, the political vehicle started by Mamphela Ramphele, put pressure on them to “merge”. It was a disaster. One does not want that, but sense must prevail among many of those rushing to see their name on the ballot paper — and among their financial backers.
In next year’s election we will have many choices, but we are likely to emerge with the same leaders we have today. That’s because the opposition’s disarray is giving the ANC a clear path to retaining power.
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