‘A week is a long time in politics”, the 1960s quote by British Prime Minister Harold Wilson, should be revised to: “A day is a long time in South African politics.”
On the back of Jacob Zuma’s decade-long cesspool of State Capture, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala saga appears to be an acceptable transgression for many, yet had these developments arisen a few years after Nelson Mandela’s term in office, the country would have been baying for Ramaphosa’s head.
The current debate is about the gravity and depth of wrongdoing that we are prepared to accept, relative to the alternative options of a replacement president or leader within the ruling party. This is indeed worrisome.
Whether the value of the money stolen from Ramaphosa’s farm was half-a-million dollars or four million or where it was stashed is irrelevant. The fact is that transactions of this substantial value in foreign currency were done without VAT invoices or proper financial disclosure by the President and that is unacceptable. There’s no being half-pregnant on this matter.
But setting aside our moral compass appears to have become our reality, guided by the question: “If not Ramaphosa, then who?” The current ruling party certainly does suffer a vacuum of leadership options and we shudder to think of David Mabuza as our president, even if only for a few weeks. And rightfully so.
If you want to know what a bad candidate Mabuza is, read Rehana Rossouw’s book, Predator Politics. Aside from the volumes of corruption accusations that Mabuza is steeped in, the absence of any substance of statesmanship is astounding. I don’t know of one sentence he has uttered in public as the Deputy President that has made any sense or sparked interest.
Failed by the system
The decision by Ramaphosa to take the Section 89 Panel’s report on review will certainly slow down the Parliamentary impeachment process. And while it does, Ramaphosa’s biggest test awaits him over the next few weeks as he sets out to convince his party’s various committees and delegates that he should be elected as their president for the next five years.
Whatever happens, ours is the unfortunate situation of being ruled by a party whose funding has often been linked to corrupt dealings. A party that selects and places very suspect people into Parliament and its oversight committees to protect their own from being held accountable for poor performance within the executive structures of government.
This situation is a direct outcome of a failed electoral system — 0ne that allows political parties to decide who will represent us in Parliament, instead of the people voting for known candidates presented to them by the political party.
The current system, which was supposed to be reformed into a more transparent constituency-based model decades ago, is grossly flawed and recent plans to amend this have been thwarted by the ANC and the EFF.
Coalition politicking
The reality is that the ANC is a damaged party, with or without Ramaphosa. It has weak and tainted leadership succession options and all indications are that it will not muster the necessary votes to lead outright in 2024. This makes ours a future of coalition politics for the first time at a national government level in little over a year.
Research also shows the higher the voter turnout, the worse the ANC and populist parties such as the EFF will fare. This has the potential for significant change and prosperity, growth and development in South Africa.
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Sure, it will be messy and we trust and hope the array of political parties in play will up their game and get our coalition politicking sorted out.
Whatever leadership succession unfolds in the ANC over the next few months, of one thing I am sure: civil society will collectively be required to defend the gains we have made as a nation since Zuma and his cabal were ousted in 2018.
The positive developments within the National Prosecuting Authority, the SARS, the Special Investigating Unit as well as the Hawks and other institutions that uphold the rule of law, must not be allowed to regress.
Although it’s normal to express despair and frustration at these unfortunate developments, we cannot give up. We must dig deeper, fight harder and become more active to be the change we want to see. DM