Strengthen government of all people by the people for people

Country is surrounded by forces of corrupt private and corporate interests

FRIENDS keep asking me to sign petitions urging President Cyril Ramaphosa to change his mind about swopping Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula with Thandi Modise as Speaker of the National Assembly and the defence minister in the Cabinet.

They all agree that the ANC has a right to deploy its elected representatives to any office but this, they say, is not the time or the manner to do so: the president has no business in swopping a head of the legislative body with a member of the executive, the doctrine of separation of powers has been violated, and the constitutional gains of the past 20 years to separate the party from the state are in jeopardy.

I have not signed any of the petitions. Yes, many blunders were committed under Mapisa-Nqakula's watch as a former defence minister, and they won't be corrected for as long as the ANC eludes accountability. And they must be stopped.

Oh, but wait – the opposition parties unreservedly targeted Mapisa-Nqakula, the individual, for persecution and were reserved in applying the necessary pressure to Ramaphosa, her principal, or the ANC, her party, to eradicate factionalism and corruption.

Parliament has a mix of members across political parties, some committed to ensuring a clean and efficient government and some not. Both sides in the war continue to make mistakes that negatively affect citizens.

I'd sign any petition to promote a clean government, stop corruption and prevent corrupt individuals from serving in public office.

What's more, when this war ends, I hope the law-abiding public representatives across political parties will emerge victorious. I hope South Africans will soon resume their social and material progress on every front.

But I can't ignore a pattern of nominations and election of leaders by Parliament that is so blatant that I am amazed it's not central to the conversation about Mapisa-Nqakula's election as Speaker.

What does the DA seek to achieve by contesting leadership positions in its current style?

The ANC candidates for officebearer positions have often faced a contest from opposition parties, even during the early years of our democracy.

In 2008, the DA nominated Joe Seremane, the most prominent black figure in the largely white party, to contest with Kgalema Motlanthe when Parliament elected a successor to president Thabo Mbeki.

In 2014, the DA nominated Nosimo Balindlela, the former ANC Eastern Cape premier who first defected to Cope and then to the DA in 2012 to contest with Baleka Mbete.

Jumping ahead to this year, the DA nominated Annelie Lotriet to contest with Mapisa-Nqakula. They all lost in both numbers and in symbolism.

In its efforts to demonstrate its relevance in SA's political landscape, the DA has always been hobbled by a huge disadvantage – the counter-productive projection of its racial profile and its elitist policies on transformation that are helping it control pockets of the country.

Because of that, it has no narrative to counter the one the ANC has always wielded, which said: “The DA nominees are not put forward in good faith to democratise government. They're a bunch of puppets and proxies for the elite in the party whose main agenda is to undermine the ANC.” Laments against factionalism and corruption in the ANC could not defeat that narrative but feed it.

The corrupt and faction-ridden ANC can't stay in power forever, but is the DA style of seeking to eject it deserving of criticism for its poor results? The answer has to be yes if, as I am arguing, the shady and divisive contest is causing the same problem it is supposed to be solving.

This is not limited to the contests in Parliament but also in municipal councils where the DA is leading coalitions of opposition parties to wrestle power from the ANC.

Many people assume the DA leaders are the face of what SA would be without a corrupt ANC.

But the DA posture as an official opposition might be obscuring the most crucial fact: the present-day ANC no longer represents the popular sentiments of most South Africans. The ANC too is, in a sense, an alien force.

In the first 10 years of our democracy, it's fair to say most South Africans were deeply devoted to the five pillars set out in the promise of the Reconstruction and Development Programme, which are: meeting basic needs; developing human resources; building the economy; democratising the state; and implementing the RDP.

Unfortunately, despite progressive government policies over the past years, developing human resources and democratising the state have been lagging behind.

The great irony of the DA project to bring democracy and social progress to South Africans is this: South Africans have a powerful progressive current of their own. It's transformational, not reformist. It's progressive, not elitist.

In the two decades after the country gained democracy, South Africans have come to realise and reconcile with the limitations of political parties in changing our society.

During that time, what did that ANC government achieve? It implemented policies that significantly increased representation in leadership positions of different races, women, youth, people with disabilities.

It implemented laws to give effect to constitutional rights. It leads a Parliament with strong legislative powers and acceptable ability to hold the executive accountable.

As Parliament proceeds with its business under the leadership of Mapisa-Nqakula, the country is surrounded by forces of corrupt private and corporate interests hungering to get in – ANC factions, corrupt politicians seeking election to public office and corrupt businesses seeking to exploit public resources.

Before any of them succeed, there ought to be a national dialogue in which political parties, business, and civil society organisations can work out a way to keep one another involved in supporting Parliament as a true representative of the people and aloof of narrow political interests.

For what South Africans need help with is getting everyone else to strengthen the government of all people by the people for the people.