A feeling of impending doom hangs in the air, one of dread and foreboding. Everybody who cares about this land is walking about with a knot in their stomach. The politicians — true to form — are messing up, and foreigners with hostile intent are ganging up on us. The storms aren’t just gathering; they’re threatening to overwhelm us. Make-or-break decisions will have to be made this weekend.
Anybody who watched the chaotic scenes in parliament this week would have been ashamed, embarrassed and angry, and despondent about the future. A drunken brawl would have been hard-pressed to match the spectacle.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, having let slip that the DA would define itself out of the government if it voted against the budget — thus hinting at the GNU’s imminent demise — must surely have been heartened by the pandemonium. His supporters were almost dancing on the GNU’s grave, and it’s difficult to imagine how he can stay its execution. The genie is out of the bottle.
But caution should be the watchword, even at this late hour. This is not the time for rash action, or decisions taken in anger. So much is at stake. Statesmanship, not political posturing, is required. Coalitions are never easy. They are by definition a compromise. Nobody gets everything they desire. And there has to be trust among the parties and a realisation they’re not friends or even acquaintances, but rivals with genuine political differences who have to make do with the difficult cards that the voters have dealt them. Working together is not about being nice to each other, but about faithfully carrying out the mandate of the electorate.
The problem is the ANC has behaved like the big brother of old, the monarch of all it surveys. It sees the other parties as mere lickspittles, who should sit quietly and behave themselves. But those days are gone. The ANC no longer has the numbers. The party didn’t have enough votes to elect its own president; it certainly won’t be able to govern on its own. Yet old habits die hard. It would indeed be a cruel irony if Ramaphosa kicks the DA out of the GNU — having expended its political capital to elect Ramaphosa, it then becomes his biggest victim since he took office.
The GNU is Ramaphosa’s own project. He conceived it and sold it to his party. It’s his handiwork and probably his singular achievement, and he should be protecting it with his life. But he seems prepared to sacrifice it at the altar of political convenience.
For him to pull the trigger now will be an admission of defeat; that he was wrong to cobble it together — and that his enemies within the party were right. Panyaza Lesufi, who blatantly defied Ramaphosa and refused to include the DA in his provincial government, must be gloating.
Dismantling the GNU would merely reinforce Ramaphosa’s reputation as a coward, a man who can’t or won’t lead, but merely goes with the flow. He doesn’t have the stomach to resist or stand up to the hyenas baying for blood.
The presence of other parties in the GNU has helped to shatter the camaraderie of the comrades within the halls of power. It’s made it difficult for them to connive in wrongdoing and/or to divvy up the spoils among themselves. For a public gatvol with corruption, that has been something to cheer.
The DA has been an awkward partner, for sure. There is nothing endearing about its over-confidence, seen as arrogance; about its instant mastery of its cabinet portfolios; or about its political showboating — always quick to parade its achievements, or the iniquities it exposes in government.
The dissolution of the GNU, as constituted, will change international perceptions of the country — for the worse
But the DA is also paying for the mistake it made at the outset. Knowing it was dealing with a slippery character in Ramaphosa, it voted for him on the strength of a piece of paper with no enforcement mechanisms. It gave him a blank cheque, and he happily cashed it. In fact, the ANC has got more out of this arrangement — NHI, the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act, the Expropriation Act, and so on — than it would care to admit.
Ramaphosa will be fondly remembered for his failures — a man who promised the world and delivered not a thing. He pledged to save the country from the looters, only to get into bed with them.
The idea or sentiments the GNU signifies — people of all colours and races living and governing together — would have been his only shining glory. Now he wants to scupper that too. Those who are cheering him on to swing the axe have daggers aimed at his back. That would be his reward for doing their bidding.
The smaller parties are already salivating at the prospect of crumbs from the master’s table. Gayton McKenzie was shouting “Abahambe!”, probably hoping to be rewarded with the home affairs ministry he’s always coveted. Patricia de Lille, our hero of border security, was similarly singing for her supper. Mmusi Maimane, too, would be happy with the 30 pieces of silver that could come his way.
ActionSA chair Michael Beaumont argued forcefully in these pages last week (“Roll over and play dead in the GNU”) that the DA had been negligent not to have tied the ANC down to specifics before joining the GNU. This week, his party joined the ANC in voting for a tax increase. But then ActionSA has become something of a political chameleon.
If the DA goes, what then? What happens, for instance, to the coalition agreement in KwaZulu-Natal? Does Ramaphosa hand the province to Jacob Zuma and his band of brigands in the MK? But, more importantly, think of the economic fallout — because that’s the elephant in the room.
The dissolution of the GNU as constituted will change international perceptions of the country for the worse. Donald Trump’s sustained attack is going to have a devastating effect on the economy, which has never been in good shape even at the best of times. It will also give further ammunition to Trump and his local surrogates, who falsely claim that Ramaphosa has it in for white people.
Ramaphosa should not cut off his nose to spite his face. As his supporters often sing, he should stand up and man up.
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