This country needs an effective opposition; the Democratic Alliance (DA) cannot truly fulfil that role anymore, as it is now a member of the very government it was meant to hold to account. The government of national unity (GNU) will prove to be a failure, turning a once strong opposition party into a scapegoat and patsy. And we need to start thinking about possible replacements for this crucial role of effective opposition.
South Africans, understandably, want to be hopeful about the future. But blind optimism prevents us from preparing for a likely, unfortunate future. This has led to negativity about the GNU being shut down and silenced on social media, and in the comment sections of op-eds. The prevailing feeling is that the GNU is a good thing and should be supported.
When Cyril Ramaphosa replaced Jacob Zuma in 2017 as president, many South Africans were overwhelmingly excited. If social media and traditional media were anything to go by, this country’s problems were a thing of the past; Ramaphosa was going to fix everything.
This Ramaphoria lasted for years and years. Even as Ramaphosa, who had been a part of the ANC’s corrupt regime since day one, continued to oversee this country continuing to descend into incompetency and corrupt madness. Businessmen still made excuses for the subpar performance of the president, and people kept lying to themselves that things were going to get better.
Imagine if we had embraced reality back in 2017? That Zuma wasn’t the only problem. That anything that comes from the ANC’s corrupt, Marxist and collectivist halls will inevitably keep driving this country into ruin. If we had rejected blind optimism back then, we could have begun working on real solutions. The opposition could have stopped resting on its laurels and aggressively ousted the ANC in multiple elections.
Fast-forward to 2024, and now we have the DA, the once official opposition, sitting at the same table as the ruling party. The GNU is being lauded as a triumph, but in the coming months and years, we will see how we have accomplished nothing but de-clawing the opposition project.
The DA will need to cooperate with its coalition partners, and its complaints will contain no real bite unless they are willing to torpedo the entire GNU; a powerful bargaining chip that the DA should use to get its way.
Unfortunately, if the DA was to have the guts to threaten the existence of the GNU to enact real, positive change, they would have done so already. Rather, the DA has settled for petty cabinet positions without forcing through any crucial reforms as a part of the deal.
So, what do we do now? Who should replace the DA as the new, official opposition?
Technically, Jacob Zuma’s MK Party is the largest party outside of the GNU, making it the opposition on paper. But as an ANC splinters, facing endemic infighting and instability, it isn’t really even an opposition, much less an effective one.
What South Africa needs is a strong-willed, competent, and effective opposition that is uncompromising in its fight for a better future for all South Africans. The MK cannot accomplish this with its inherent corruption and conflict. The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have proven over the course of its entire existence that it is little more than a gang of spoilt, whiny children; a good thing, too, as their policies would be truly apocalyptic if implemented.
The parties who look decent on paper are too weak to be truly effective. ActionSA (ASA) squandered its election through being unable to stop attacking the DA at every turn. It proved to be a party founded purely on vindictiveness and was punished for that fact.
Unfortunately, a truly effective opposition doesn’t exist. Yet. But it needs to. And it needs to perform far better than any opposition ever has before.
A hypothetical opposition party needs to encompass the unifying values that South Africans share, but aren’t represented by the ANC. A focus on solving real issues, like crime and unemployment – not first world petty issues like social justice. It must possess a sophisticated infrastructure that can address the multitude of issues affecting SA’s political landscape. It must engage in smart, selective, and forward-thinking marketing, that takes the lessons from successful political campaigns from other countries and applies them to South Africa.
Most of all, a new opposition party must firmly embrace reality. That is, it must be willing to work together with truly decent opposition parties, while refusing to compromise on South Africa’s future.
Hopefully, we will see such an opposition form in our lifetime. Perhaps, as a splinter from the DA. Or maybe the DA will embrace these lessons after learning a hard lesson from the GNU. But regardless of where this opposition comes from, we need it. And we need it now.
