Shooting for the Moon, but is there enough fuel in the rocket?

If the Multi-Party Charter for SA (colloquially known as the Moonshot Pact) could be viewed as Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen’s biggest political move, the reportage in its wake was rather unenthused, derisive, and very far from convinced. Held at the same venue as the CODESA negotiations perhaps it was the brazen allusion that South Africa had reached another critical turning point: the ‘failed’ ANC losing its ruling party status as was the fate of the erstwhile National Party back in 1994. President of iSANCO, Zukile Luyenge, went as far as calling the moment, “our 1994.” 

Or maybe – because the whole exercise was unprecedented in recent times – for the traditional voter, it was somewhat unusual.

Weird, even.

Those attuned to SA’s unwritten but entrenched social engineering would’ve taken jibes at how the bigwigs might have had to suffer each other long enough to ensure that there – as happened at CODESA with the Inkatha Freedom Party – were no walkouts. Were they dancing to a compilation of Mbaqanga, Koos Kombuis and throwing the late Mandoza in there – just to make sure the “crossover” message of a New-New SA was cool enough? Brandy or Mqombothi at the afterparty? Might Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, leader of Inkatha at CODESA, have had any behind the scenes advice for his successor in how to conduct oneself cordially when you’re not getting your way at the negotiation table?

Oh! the creative madness of social media….

On a serious note, though, this has been fashioned as something of an election D-Day, where numbers count and you can’t afford to have any misgivings about your fellow man’s trustworthiness. At this motley gathering, questions arose on whether the haphazard marriage could hold it together. Whether the overnight honeymoon wherein certain parties who had yet to iron out their kinks were possibly going headlong and naively into an engagement that was essentially doomed for the rocks.

After all, some of these parties have had to contend with accusations of harbouring self-serving laager/tribal interests. Others are perceived as nothing more than liberals whose policies have no idea what that term actually means. Amongst the unfamiliar names were a few that we’d never seen, let alone heard of before, all gathered to bury the hatchet and speak in the mutual cause of wresting the baton of power from the seemingly indomitable ANC. The new guys on the block number in their ranks the Spectrum National Party, iSANCO, Spectrum National Party and ActionSA – which has enjoyed some success in the 2021 local government elections.

Yet in all the pomp and pageantry, the carpeted foyers, and impassioned addresses, one thing was clear: getting the “fifty plus one” majority at next year’s general election would be no pap and vleis. Certainly not amongst the bevy of wine-swilling communists and socialists who make up the ranks of the Liberation Movement. The SA Communist Party secretary general, Solly Mapaila, was amongst the first to voice his dissatisfaction.

Between lambasting government at being adept in organising extravagant summits yet failing to fix rampant domestic troubles like crime and unemployment, he was, not at all unexpectedly, more than a tad scathing on the Multi-Party endeavour. Said Mapaila on City Press: “We see the reincarnation of apartheid and bantustan forces coming together with a sole mission to remove the liberation movement [from power] and not just a revolution movement as represented by the ANC. The liberation movement is bigger than the ANC…It is the very system of our society that is being contested.”

Fair enough. After all, symbolism and politics are hardly mutually exclusive and as we have so often laboured the point here at eParkeni, that to not have one’s fingers firmly on the nation’s pulse is foolhardy for anybody in leadership. Go to Europe, or Asia, or virtually anywhere else in the world and it is Europeans or Asians or whatever majority race that usually runs those governments. Why would anybody feel that those norms would not figure or that people would not tend to always gravitating towards being led by people who look and sound like them in SA? Or are thirty years of democracy enough to sway attitudes over to the alternative? Only the voters will decide, I suppose.

That said, even combined, at least for the three parties – Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), Democratic Alliance (DA) and Freedom Front Plus (FF+) – that have previously competed in general elections, their numbers fall way short. Collectively, they managed around 26% of the vote in the last election with the ruling ANC bagging around 57%. As such, there is talk of roping in other opposition parties as well as tapping into the vast pool of the 17 or so million voters who didn’t bother casting their ballot in 2019. For Steenhuisen, wooing this demographic is crucial.

The disquieting matter of an ANC-EFF coalition, if not at the core of the Pact, has been something which clearly gives the Multi-Party sleepless nights. Julius Malema and President Cyril Ramaphosa agreeing to put their differences aside over single malts and Ankole steaks at Phala-Phala. As the smaller party in that friendship, Juju being rewarded with the critical position of leader in government business; moving swiftly for the nationalisation of mines and central bank whilst cradling a toy R5 rifle and singing that infamous song. The sheer thought of that would be enough to see many queueing at OR Tambo for the first plane ticket out of here. Or perhaps the comrades will make him an offer so good that the man from Limpopo will find the reasonable guy in him and even stop heckling at the opposition in parliament. With some of these gentlemen, stranger things have happened.

For now, though, the Multi-Party is limited to doing what all parties usually do as election season gathers steam – make promises. Assure South Africans that it is working in their best interests. Putting the people first. Ensuring that merit will count for something in this new order. All sound good. But of course we’ve been here enough times not to get too excited. In fact, for this writer, the one thing that disappointed him was how these talks seemed dominated by men in suits. “Where,” he wondered, “are all the articulate women who often represent these parties across all spheres of government?” Gender parity, gents, remember, it’s 2024 not quite 1994.