The ANC has surrendered the future; the DA is ready to rescue SA
The speech delivered by ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa in Mbombela last weekend revealed a great deal about the state of play as South Africa enters election season. Both in terms of what Ramaphosa said and did not say, the speech confirmed two emerging trends. First: with the elections now as little as four months out, the ANC is in a state of panic over its electoral prospects. Second: as the sun sets on its time as a dominant governing party, the ANC has given up any pretence of having a forward-looking vision for the future.
The combined effect of these two factors is that Ramaphosa’s speech signified a transition of sorts, in which the ANC surrendered the future. Into this vacuum steps the DA, with a bold new vision for a prosperous future.
Let’s start with what Ramaphosa did say. The essence of his speech was to tell the country what his greatest fears are. According to his own words, it is clear that there are three things that keep Ramaphosa up at night: the multiparty charter (MPC), breakaways from the ANC, and the inevitability of coalition government.
Right at the top of the list of the ANC’s fears is the MPC. Ramaphosa rightly observed that the ANC is “coming under attack from the Moonshot Pact”, as the MPC was originally known when I first initiated it from the floor of the DA congress in April last year. “They are forming pacts, calling themselves this pact, that [pact].” It is clear that the word “pact” haunts Ramaphosa’s nightmares.
The ANC’s self-confessed obsession with the MPC is the clearest sign yet that this initiative has been a political game-changer for South Africa. For the first time, there is a credible political alternative available in the coming elections, which can win if enough voters turn out. This marks a profound shift for Ramaphosa. While it later turned out to be a complete fraud, there is no denying that the “New Dawn” helped the ANC seize the momentum during the 2019 campaign. This time around, the shoe is on the other foot. The prospect of a new multiparty national government, anchored by the DA to ensure stability and good governance, has comprehensively captured the public imagination.
But the ANC nightmare, as described by Ramaphosa himself last weekend, does not end there. The second ghost that haunts them is the accelerating disintegration of the ANC. A terrified Ramaphosa lashed out at “rebel breakaway groupings” as “snakes’. This was a clear reference to the growing list of ANC splinter groups, including Jacob Zuma’s MK Party, that have realised that the
ANC will not get 50% in 2024. In this changed environment where the ANC is reduced to a minority party, they have realised that they will potentially be able to extort greater concessions from outside the ANC than from the inside.
Despite his protestations, this is a crisis created by Ramaphosa’s own cowardice. His desperation to appease Zuma saw him releasing more than 16,000 criminals from prison as a cover to keep Zuma out of jail. If he’s prepared to do that to appease Zuma while in the ANC, imagine what he’ll be willing to do to appease him as the ANC scrambles for partners inside a coalition of corruption. Small wonder Zuma would rather take his chances outside.
The third phantom that Ramaphosa told us haunts the ANC is the inevitable emergence of coalition governments at provincial and national levels. In an epic act of projection, he claimed that coalitions could be a “total disaster ”— completely ignoring the reality that the real, proven disaster for South Africa has been decades of ANC rule. Electricity blackouts, water cuts, the world’s highest youth unemployment, a growing cost-ofliving crisis — not one of these disasters was caused by coalitions. They were caused by the ANC.
What about the things Ramaphosa did not say?
There was not even the pretence of a futurefocused vision, especially on the economy. We can only conclude that the ANC has been so consumed by its fear of losing that it has no interest in projecting a vision for the future. The takeaway from Mbombela is that the ANC knows it has no future as the dominant party it once was. Like all organisations with no future, all it has left is to fearfully cling to the past.
The contrast with the DA could not be starker. Our investment in the MPC, alongside our partners, is fundamentally rooted in our determination to achieve a viable path to power. But we also understand, unlike the ANC, that the pursuit of power exists not for its own sake. It should exist to implement a vision to improve the lives of the people.
On February 17, the DA will launch our manifesto in the capital city. The vision we outline there is entirely future-focused, based on the urgent need to revive our economy if we are to rescue South Africa from its current path. While the ANC tries to hide the problems it has created, the DA is unambiguous in acknowledging the mountain we need to climb. We will end loadshedding and water cuts. We will drive down unemployment and poverty. We will increase
investment in infrastructure. We will abolish cadre deployment and deal with corruption. We will urgently reduce the violent crime that plagues our communities.
These are the core elements of the DA’s vision to rescue South Africa. They reflect the issues faced by South Africans in their daily lives. Whereas the ANC’s revelling in the past while fearing the future reflects a party that has lost all touch with the people, the DA’s focus on actually solving problems in society reflects a party that is relevant to the daily lived experiences of ordinary South Africans.
Mbombela proved useful in outlining the choice facing voters in this election. On one hand is the incumbent party that is responsible for the “total disaster” confronting the people daily. A party haunted by the MPC, by its own appeasement of enemies, and by a rapidly approaching coalition future in which it will be reduced to an also-ran. On the other hand is the DA. A party with a proven track record of fixing disasters inherited from the ANC, that cannot wait for the future to arrive, and that has a clear path to power rooted in a vision to rescue South Africa.
The choice is yours, South Africa.