There is a real danger for non-ANC partners in the government of national unity that they will be perceived by their supporters, voters and the public as agreeing with the ANC’s destruct policies, or as giving way to the ANC without offering any clear resistance.
The ANC appears to be in self-destruct mode, putting itself and the country in peril by behaving as if it’s a majority party — not part of a multiparty government — and pushing unilateral, populist, nonsensical and ideological policies that threaten South Africa’s national interests, economy and stability.
The danger for non-ANC GNU members is they may go down with the ANC as it descends into a death spiral — adopting the same failed policies, recycling the same failed people and repeating the same failed ideological stances.
The DA, IFP and PA are being associated with the failed and captured policies of the ANC, which, ironically, they oppose. The NHI legislation; the expropriation (without compensation) legislation; their refusal to renegotiate aspects of BELA; their anti-US foreign policy; and the VAT increases, are all populist, ideological or captured policies. They will cause the flight of investment, capital and skills, which will cause more state failure, unemployment, poverty and inequality.
Because the ANC insists on governing as if it is still the majority party — and not part of a multiparty GNU — and refuses to consult and compromise with its co-governing partners, the non-ANC GNU parties will have to adopt a new strategy. One of determinedly opposing the ANC within the GNU, while at the same time publicly opposing its ideological and patronage interests and policies.
Remaining silent about the ANC’s irrational policies — under the illusion that this will hold the GNU together — gives the ANC and the public the impression it has their approval — and emboldens the ANC to continue on this self-destruct path, taking its non-ANC GNU parties along with it.
The strategy of the non-ANC partners must be to publicly and loudly oppose the policies the ANC refuses to compromise on . And if the it insists on such self-destruct policies — despite non-ANC GNU parties’ opposition to them — to take these to court, to show the public a clear differentiation between them and the ANC.
The ANC typifies an organisational death-spiral phenomenon. Its leaders operate as if there is no crisis in South Africa; they appoint the same leaders responsible for the failures of the state, economy and country to rectify these; and the party operates as if the domestic and international environments are the same as when the ANC came to power in 1994.
Despite the ANC’s ideological, patronage and populist policies being responsible for South Africa’s decline, the party continues to push through the same failed policies, expecting them to bring different results. This pushes the ANC — and, sadly, South Africa, as collateral damage — further down the self-destruct path.
Rasool was a man of the liberation-era foreign politics of the past, out-of-place within the new politics of the Trump era and shifting global dynamics
Similarly, the ANC seems unable to move from outdated positions, appearing married to them — even if they harm its own members, supporters and voters.
Even in clear instances where logic, reason and common sense would urge changes in direction, ANC leaders appear to be too proud — too invested in failed policies and leaders — to retreat from failed policies, withdraw failed leaders and distance themselves from failed former foreign allies.
Astonishingly, President Cyril Ramaphosa said this week he will not listen to any party in the GNU, or outside, when appointing a replacement for Ebrahim Rasool as ambassador to the US, though Ramaphosa is the leader of a multiparty GNU.
When Rasool was appointed, the ANC similarly insisted they would appoint him no matter the opposition from non-ANC GNU members. This despite the party having been warned by its GNU partners, as well as business, civil society and non-ANC experts, that Rasool’s appointment would be an outright provocation of the Trump administration, who perceived Rasool — rightly or wrongly — as pro-Hamas, pro-Iran, anti-American, anti-Israel and anti-Trump. Worse, Rasool was a man of the liberation-era foreign politics of the past, out-of-place within the new politics of the Trump era and shifting global dynamics.
Non-ANC GNU partners appear to be disappearing amid the ANC’s unilateral decision-making on policy. To retain their independence, their individual character and their policy identity, they will have to articulate their positions when it goes against ANC ideological, patronage and past-based policies.
If the non-ANC parties don't assert themselves publicly, they will disappear as independent electoral parties. For their own political survival, they must assert their independence from the ANC’s self-destruct policies.
• William Gumede is professor of practice at the School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand, and author of Restless Nation: Making Sense of Troubled Times (Tafelberg).
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.