As the saying goes, “if you sup with the devil you had better have a long spoon.” Put differently, any political party that takes votes from South Africans in these elections and then uses those votes to keep the ANC in power is going to be effectively dissolving itself.
Terms like government of national unity sound appealing, as do supply and demand relationships that keep the ANC at arm’s length. However, it will not be long before such parties find themselves defending what they have always opposed and voting to keep their newfound positions and perks.
Perhaps most astonishingly, the ANC appears to have its pick of potential suiters. It is unfathomable how in a country where the failures of unemployment, crime, load shedding and corruption are so easily linked to ANC governance, ‘opposition’ parties are lining up to keep the ANC in power.
It is the same political parties who put up posters saying “Rescue SA” who now wish to turnaround and suggest that this can be achieved in working relationships with those from whom South Africans allegedly need rescuing. Perhaps even more contradictory has been the ‘gewaar’ campaign against parties that will hand the Western Cape back to the very same ANC that “cannot be ruled out” as a national partner.
There are those who wish to talk about “the least worst option”, and they typically point to the radical left of our political spectrum to scare voters into believing that there selflessness compels them to do whatever necessary to avoid doomsday in South Africa. The truth is that any arrangement led by the ANC will continue South Africa on its existing path and any ‘reforms’ extracted by coalition partners, from whichever side of the political spectrum, will be cosmetic at best. If you doubt this, consider the following.
The ANC has been in power since 1994. Its cadre deployment policies have eroded the barriers between party and state and officials are appointed based on loyalty to the ANC and its programmes. It is delusional to think that a Minister or MEC from any other party is going to achieve real policy reforms from an officialdom that takes its real instructions from Luthuli House. These starry-eyed suitors of the ANC who oppose cadre deployment in court will not achieve a reversal of a policy that was adopted by an ANC conference in 1997.
Consider practically if you will the lunacy of fighting corruption while co-governing with the ANC. The efforts of any co-governing partner of the ANC to fulfil their election campaign promise to fight corruption will cease the moment they walk into the first cabinet meeting (of 64 mind you) and see that their new ‘co-workers’ are the very people identified by the Zondo Commission. How long do you think it will take before such a Minister is told to look the other way in their department and how principled do you think they will be when their tenure depends on them hearing and seeing no evil.
Imagine being a co-governing partner of the ANC in the portfolio of education or trade and industry and learning that discovering the ANC’s long-standing co-governing partners in the form of the tripartite alliance who hold a veto power over issues like performance management or policy direction. It would certainly be difficult to explain to your constituents who voted for you on the grounds of education and economic reform that COSATU and the SACP won’t let you fulfil your commitments.
Small parties do not change big parties in coalition. The system of executive authority in South Africa places the power in the hands of the President and Premiers who appoint Ministers and MECs that only operate with delegated authority. Ministers and MECs do not set policy direction, this is done by cabinet a place in which the ANC’s newfound co-governance partners will find themselves outnumbered to say the least.
Even these notions of supply and demand relationships that do not involve co-governing with the ANC in the executive are folly. Make no mistake, it will work for a while, until the predictable takes place and the President is found with millions of dollars in his furniture or the Speaker is charged with receiving millions of rands in bribes. At that moment the democratic institutions of Parliament, as intended by our Constitution, will kick in and the votes of political parties in a working relationship (in whatever form) with the ANC will be required to defeat accountability. In that moment, political parties with a history of holding the ANC to account will find themselves like the ANC MPs to voted to confirm that the swimming pool really was a fire pool.
The reason why ActionSA is unequivocal in saying that we cannot fix the problem in South Africa by partnering with the problem. The last 20 years has shown that South Africa cannot co-exist in mutual prosperity with an ANC in government. There is not one crisis confronting the South African people today that will be solved if the ANC remains in national government. This is why we are committed to working with political parties to remove and replace the ANC because the only pathway to fixing South Africa does not include those who have tried their best to break our country.
Now is not the time for the feint hearted to abandon the project of change in our country. Now is the time, more than ever, to broaden the group of political parties that will be required to displace the ANC from the seat of national power from which they have devastated our country.
If any party equivocates on this, South Africans must not wait until after the elections when they can no longer exert control over political parties they must punish parties with their votes in this election. If you doubt your power to do so, remember while there are only 70 parties contesting this election there are a record 27.7 million voters. On any question of agency, I think it is safe to say the voters have it.
Running with the Foxes and Hunting with the Hounds
As the saying goes, “if you sup with the devil you had better have a long spoon.” Put differently, any political party that takes votes from South Africans in these elections and then uses those votes to keep the ANC in power is going to be effectively dissolving itself.
Terms like government of national unity sound appealing, as do supply and demand relationships that keep the ANC at arm’s length. However, it will not be long before such parties find themselves defending what they have always opposed and voting to keep their newfound positions and perks.
Perhaps most astonishingly, the ANC appears to have its pick of potential suiters. It is unfathomable how in a country where the failures of unemployment, crime, load shedding and corruption are so easily linked to ANC governance, ‘opposition’ parties are lining up to keep the ANC in power.
It is the same political parties who put up posters saying “Rescue SA” who now wish to turnaround and suggest that this can be achieved in working relationships with those from whom South Africans allegedly need rescuing. Perhaps even more contradictory has been the ‘gewaar’ campaign against parties that will hand the Western Cape back to the very same ANC that “cannot be ruled out” as a national partner.
There are those who wish to talk about “the least worst option”, and they typically point to the radical left of our political spectrum to scare voters into believing that there selflessness compels them to do whatever necessary to avoid doomsday in South Africa. The truth is that any arrangement led by the ANC will continue South Africa on its existing path and any ‘reforms’ extracted by coalition partners, from whichever side of the political spectrum, will be cosmetic at best. If you doubt this, consider the following.
The ANC has been in power since 1994. Its cadre deployment policies have eroded the barriers between party and state and officials are appointed based on loyalty to the ANC and its programmes. It is delusional to think that a Minister or MEC from any other party is going to achieve real policy reforms from an officialdom that takes its real instructions from Luthuli House. These starry-eyed suitors of the ANC who oppose cadre deployment in court will not achieve a reversal of a policy that was adopted by an ANC conference in 1997.
Consider practically if you will the lunacy of fighting corruption while co-governing with the ANC. The efforts of any co-governing partner of the ANC to fulfil their election campaign promise to fight corruption will cease the moment they walk into the first cabinet meeting (of 64 mind you) and see that their new ‘co-workers’ are the very people identified by the Zondo Commission. How long do you think it will take before such a Minister is told to look the other way in their department and how principled do you think they will be when their tenure depends on them hearing and seeing no evil.
Imagine being a co-governing partner of the ANC in the portfolio of education or trade and industry and learning that discovering the ANC’s long-standing co-governing partners in the form of the tripartite alliance who hold a veto power over issues like performance management or policy direction. It would certainly be difficult to explain to your constituents who voted for you on the grounds of education and economic reform that COSATU and the SACP won’t let you fulfil your commitments.
Small parties do not change big parties in coalition. The system of executive authority in South Africa places the power in the hands of the President and Premiers who appoint Ministers and MECs that only operate with delegated authority. Ministers and MECs do not set policy direction, this is done by cabinet a place in which the ANC’s newfound co-governance partners will find themselves outnumbered to say the least.
Even these notions of supply and demand relationships that do not involve co-governing with the ANC in the executive are folly. Make no mistake, it will work for a while, until the predictable takes place and the President is found with millions of dollars in his furniture or the Speaker is charged with receiving millions of rands in bribes. At that moment the democratic institutions of Parliament, as intended by our Constitution, will kick in and the votes of political parties in a working relationship (in whatever form) with the ANC will be required to defeat accountability. In that moment, political parties with a history of holding the ANC to account will find themselves like the ANC MPs to voted to confirm that the swimming pool really was a fire pool.
The reason why ActionSA is unequivocal in saying that we cannot fix the problem in South Africa by partnering with the problem. The last 20 years has shown that South Africa cannot co-exist in mutual prosperity with an ANC in government. There is not one crisis confronting the South African people today that will be solved if the ANC remains in national government. This is why we are committed to working with political parties to remove and replace the ANC because the only pathway to fixing South Africa does not include those who have tried their best to break our country.
Now is not the time for the feint hearted to abandon the project of change in our country. Now is the time, more than ever, to broaden the group of political parties that will be required to displace the ANC from the seat of national power from which they have devastated our country.
If any party equivocates on this, South Africans must not wait until after the elections when they can no longer exert control over political parties they must punish parties with their votes in this election. If you doubt your power to do so, remember while there are only 70 parties contesting this election there are a record 27.7 million voters. On any question of agency, I think it is safe to say the voters have it.