In the hullabaloo that the GNU’s first anniversary has stirred, it is perhaps Cyril Ramaphosa’s proposed National Dialogue – dubbed another useless talk shop – that has overshadowed the moment. His silver tongue not notwithstanding, the endeavour has been met with overwhelming apathy and nothing to suggest any fireworks when it has bedded down to the sweaty business.
A year ago when the GNU was unveiled, the markets approved, big business grinned, new Cabinet recruits got in on the pinstriped suits, and a few apprehensive SAffers may have even popped the bubbly. It was on the money, except currency and ideology can’t always find succor under the same roof with purists. They, the self-appointed custodians of the liberation movement’s conscience would be sure to vet potential partnerships severely.
For them, it was a matter of fraternising with people who looked like them (read: black) and sang from the same hymnal of black economic empowerment, anti-white monopoly capital and all the other strictures of the liberation-struggle denomination.
As such any talk with the DA, considered in these circles as the very heartbeat of whiteness, privilege, and neoliberalism would be sacrilege, an act of selling out once more. But what did the alternative look like?
Burying the hatchet with Zuma, variously a polarising figure or the self-styled godfather of radical economic transformation, depending on who’s analysing. The one under whose watch the ANC found itself marred by factionalism, patronage and avarice. Or they could let bygones be bygones with Malema, the prodigal son who was already putting forth uncompromising demands and who is notoriously known to have things done his way or the highway.
In the end, the ANC would settle with the DA and a number of smaller parties. The markets approved although tested ideologies were all but buying into it. SA had, however, averted what is par for the course in many a country where a majority party is shown an unconvincing mandate at the polls and forced to share power: mayhem, civil unrest and first flights out.
But we stayed put. A few hostile elements challenged the results. Murmurs swirled around possible plots to distabilise the country, an imminent sequel to the 2021 July Riots. Mobs wreaking havoc on the economy; plasma tvs on shoulders, storefronts smashed in, and armed vigilantes ready to blow people’s brains out. The price tag afterwards? Best case scenario would be another R50 billion down the drain but the worst might even mean a violent coup.
Not entirely invalid. The MK party, with its Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla facing charges of incitement and her father, former president Jacob Zuma, back with a vengeance from political refrigeration and calling for ‘umshini wam’ were threatening enough to give onlookers palpitations. Add to this anxiety a belligerent Julius Malema invoking the sound of his own machine gun to packed stadiums and all over Twitter. It was unnerving, and one dumb move and who knew?
But the ANC, to universal respect, publicly conceded defeat, said they were open to working with anyone. An examplery path for to the war-prone continent, the sort of path that just north of the Beitbridge would have had you sjamboked to within an inch of your life if your wore the wrong colours. Instead of the path to power-mongering they took the high road of diplomacy and negotiation, even if that meant feigning grins with Godzille and the DA.
From the outset it was clear the union would hit many rocks before it would convince anybody of its legitimacy. Ten parties of disparate sizes signed up, so you were never going to please everybody. And you definitely weren’t going to agree on everything. BEE or merit. Coal or renewables. Which ministry to which party?
But most glaringly, with everybody bent on scoring points, internal sabotage was inevitable and you weren’t going to achieve anything if it looked like you were outshining the next guy. Especially not the ANC. And especially if you wanted to boast about it every chance you got. It would’ve also been an unenviable position to co-operate with fellow partners whilst honouring the election promises made to the constituency that put you there.
More so if some of the Bills on the table were going against everything your party stands against. There were the ubiquitous contentious redress laws, the controversial Bills; Basic Education Laws Amendment Act (BELA) and Land Expropriation Without Compensation Act and a VAT hike. For traditionally-white parties like the DA or Freedom Front Plus, it would’ve been a turncoat breach of faith with their supporters to simply prattle along without questions or protest. As such, the DA has taken the government which it is part of to court on at least four occasions.
Without a clear policy framework, it was clear that these guys were hobnobbing it out as they went along. Trial and error-ing their way to some semblance of a functional, unified government that could maintain investor confidence whilst attending to the nation’s most pressing shortcomings.
Sadly, though, in this regard it has fallen woefully short of the mark. At a debilitating 43.1%, the expanded measure of unemployment continues to shatter hopes and dreams throughout the country. And, with the economy currently wincing at a negligible 0.1% growth rate things are barely looking up. Government’s inability to employ technological empowerment schemes particularly to the youth who are most ravaged by joblessness, the GNU’s successes have little bearing on the ground.
More worrisome is the obvious absence of ideas which have led to desperate utterances recently made by Trade, industry and competition minister, Parks Tau. The Minister basically gave up the jig, effectively wiped his hands clean when he recently openly agreed with Capitec CEO Gerrie Fourie that StatsSA should include the work of those in the informal economy when writing up statistics. The idea was quickly slammed as government’s way of trying to whitewash the damning unemployment realities. Comparisons were soon drawn with how, in the face of horrendous Matric performance, government has taken to lowering the bar in order to look good but whilst ultimately failing to address the deeper issues in the education system. Yes, the GNU is getting on and the center appears to be holding. But perhaps Ramaphosa should thank the likes of Tau, who’ve offered distractions to his own apparent inability for genuine creative ideas. Come on now, another talk shop when poll after poll shows that people have no appetite for politicking or talking. All they want are jobs, whether that’s from the GNU in its current form or with Malema or Zuma in the mix. At the end of the day it’s not politics that fills the belly but good old fashioned wages.