By PHAKAMISA MAYABA
In early 2024, the small-time ex-political science student in me was looking forward to a year that would so drastically change the country’s political landscape as to breath fresh life into it. Indeed, that turned out to be the case, albeit not in the manner I’d envisioned.
Leading up to the election, unusual, vibrant candidates crept onto the ballot sheet. One did not really know what to make of them except to conclude that they were bound by that often vexing political objective of getting as close to the levers of power as possible. Perhaps, I thought, amongst them we’d finally find our very own Obama – or a resurrection of Mandela, a man so charismatic that when he speaks even the pubs turn off the jukebox to listen.
I saw a young politician who articulated like an Oxbridge graduate. There was a reputable former editor taking lots of bucks from a very wealthy white woman; militant xenophobes who shocked the bejesus out of foreign nationals; a coterie of parties under the moniker of the Moonshot Pact; a flamboyant ex-‘bandiet’ consorting with tattooed gangsters in the Western Cape; a pastoral figure who was unceremoniously sacked by a big party back in 2019; and a hair products entrepreneur hellbent on putting everyone who commits murder to the noose. He even granted this lowly publication an interview in the course of his campaign.
Herman Mashaba, leader of Action SA – the man who wishes to ship murderers off to the gallows. Image: ActionSA Facebook page.
It all seemed fresh, and a respite from the norm, hence my excitement – and nerves – were cranked up a notch. But barely a day after the election, the youngster disappeared, as did the editor, and the ex-con slipped into the maw of the government of national unity (GNU) — this as the Moonshot disintegrated, some going their separate ways, others figuring that their best hopes of survival also lay with the GNU. And the xenophobes vanished, hopefully not to take out their frustrations on the foreign spaza traders in Gauteng.
In their place were the usual suspects, the old hands of the Mzansi political scene — a bruised ANC that saw its numbers significantly dropped and was now faced with the decision to either let bygones be bygones with their archrival, the DA, or to say sorry to their former president whose miraculous comeback saw him leading the country’s third biggest party, the MKP.
It seemed the latter would happen only over Cyril Ramaphosa’s dead body. The president must’ve learnt a long time ago that if you give uBaba half a chance, you’ll only regret it when you’ve been decapitated. Hence, even before the voting, secret talks between the ANC – which publicly proclaimed its invincibility, but clearly harboured misgivings behind closed doors – and the DA had taken place. Faced with several unsavory bedfellows – some of whom were making staggering, if not unmeetable demands – the ANC would bite the bullet, taking the DA’s hand and whatever other smaller parties would follow them into the uncertainty.
That might’ve been the moment that decided the fate of the Red Brigade. Their leader, Julius Malema, we hear, was placing ‘take it or leave it’ sorts of deals on the table while some of his underlings would have been happy to join the GNU and enjoy the perks that come with being at the top of the table. They would’ve have looked at PA leader Gayton Mckenzie, drooled over the fact that this minute-ago upstart was now a cabinet minister, and bitterly resented their CIC’s stubbornness. Thus, those with credentials thought it prudent to go elsewhere, leaving those without options to suck it up under Juju’s dictatorial whip.
Depending on where you were sitting, it was all either a big miracle or anticlimax, but most people seem grateful that there were no burning tyres or blood on the streets. As could be expected, the marriage would garner massive criticism. Some labelled the union a soiree into Apartheid 2.0. Others spat on the name of Ramaphosa, a capitalist sellout who had, in their view, sold the country for Stellenbosch wine.
One would have thought that if the Buffalo wanted to sell out, a few head of Ankole cattle or some $100 bills surreptitiously delivered in fine furniture would have been more likely to clinch the deal than the drink of the gods. Top-shelf Merlot has always been a kink most associated with a certain bigwig in the SACP. But then again, stranger things have happened. A former stalwart was known to behave like an estate agent, expecting nothing but a 10% kickback in government deals he facilitated.
Before the election, though, that man would have us believe that he was still very much in it, and that his comeback was inevitable. Post election, his fate appears sealed. He’s all but been wiped off the political radar, a move probably facilitated by none other than the ANC secretary general, Fikile Mbalula, who is apparently still a very influential figure in the Free State.
The grapevine has it that ex-editor Songezo Zibi, hair guru Herman Mashaba, clergyman Mmusi Maimane and the indefatigable Auntie Pat are in talks to band together, a move that comes, in my humble opinion, a little too late. That had been one of my personal curiosities pre-May: why don’t all these guys just sit down over some brandy, iron out their differences (which I didn’t believe were many, if any at all) and go it together. They seemed to have ignored an old South African platitude, something to do with how much stronger we are united in our diversity. Now they have come to disprove even that Liverpool FC axiom, as they walk alone, quite literally, as some are reduced to just one lonely seat in parliament. How could they hope to take on the big boys with just a handful of seats?
Like its predecessor from 1994 onwards, the GNU finds itself beset with its own problems. More character-orientated, with a smidgen of policy disagreement, but in the main, the gripes that seem to attract public attention are those that are racial (or perceived to be so) at heart. In a country with our kind of racial history, those were inevitable, especially when both the ANC and DA leaderships are products of those times. You’d remember that the National Party even pulled out of the first GNU, a move that saw them become the official opposition.
Apart from the public spats, though, there has been no indication of either of the main players demanding a divorce. These arguments are starting to look more like domestic squabbles, insults back and forth, but the couple going to bed together, albeit sometimes with their backs turned to each other. With the ANC’s insistence on state-driven development and a DA going down the market route; the tone deafness of employing a known racist as chief of staff; the inability to make concessions when pushing through certain acts (Bela in particular) amongst others; there’ll be plenty more of the bickering where that came from.
The statement of intent adopted after hectic post-election negotiations … the prenup of the GNU, which, to the surprise of some, has not yet ended in divorce. Image: ANC website.
But months after the honeymoon, nobody has punched anybody in the face. No assassination attempts. The DA federal chair is still not showing anybody any quarter, no doubt a lesson taken straight from Tony Leon’s political handbook. The new DA leader, John Steenhuisen, seems to have taken to his ministerial post like a duck to water — big grins, cool suits and all. In their parliamentary exchanges, one even picks up on whiffs of a budding bromance.
It’s all good to see. The sort of organic unity Madiba would’ve been proud of, although he might have agonised about how his beloved party had regenerated so miserably. The only losers in the equation are probably the proletariat. Some six months into unity, and not much has changed in everyday South Africa. Hopefully after the festive season, the powers that be will return with a proper manual about how to get the people working and the country moving forward. Like Morgan Freeman in The Shawshank Redemption: I hope.
FEATURED IMAGE: President Cyril Ramaphosa, then DA chief whip John Steenhuizen and then DA leader Mmusi Maimane share a lighter moment in parliament in 2018 … Some have survived, others have fallen. Image: CSIS on Flickr.
This is an edited version of an article that first appeared on Phakamisa Mayaba’s website, eParkeni. Used with permission.