Zille says ANC, not SA, faces crisis
DA LEADER Helen Zille says the ANC is in crisis, and this could offer opportunities for the “people” and democracy if managed well.
Zille was writing in her SA Today newsletter following last week’s events in the National Assembly, where police were called in to remove an EFF MP.
Other opposition MPs were bruised in the ensuing skirmish as they tried to prevent the police from removing the member.
Zille said it was “exhilarating” to return to the “turbulence” of South African politics after spending a week in Germany to participate in a seminar on the implications for democracy of the fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago.
“It is always salutary to analyse our democracy in a broader context. And inevitably, after being abroad, I tend to be more optimistic about the prospects for South Africa’s future than I was before I went. I say this not despite the pandemonium in Parliament last week, but (partly) because of it,” said Zille.
Zille said that in her view, it was a misreading of the events to describe Parliament as an “institution in deep and fundamental crisis”.
“In fact, it is the ANC that is in crisis. Their crisis is not only deep and fundamental. It is terminal, although the unravelling of this once-great party will take a long time, interspersed with catalytic moments, some big – like the Numsa expulsion – and some small,” wrote Zille.
She said the “symptoms of the ANC’s internal crisis have surfaced in every institution in our country, public and private”.
“Although the ANC’s crisis does hold serious risks for South Africa, it actually offers far bigger opportunities to consolidate our democracy within a single generation, if we manage the situation well,” said the DA leader.
In order to defend Parliament, the DA was making it clear that the National Assembly, the highest forum of South Africa’s elected representatives, “is not the ANC’s playground.
“Jacob Zuma does not have the option to refuse to answer questions in Parliament. He has a constitutional duty to do so. He was recently quoted as saying to journalists, no less, that he did not have to come to Parliament because he is the president, not an MP.
“If he was quoted correctly, this is a mind-boggling statement. It shows his complete ignorance of and/or contempt for our constitution and the core principle of accountability that underlies it,” added Zille.
She said the DA’s job during the next five years “is to prevent the ANC from turning its crisis into a crisis for South Africa’s democracy”.
“This is an enormous challenge, as the events in Parliament last week showed,” said Zille.