"All happy families resemble one another; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." One hundred and forty years later, this powerful opening line of Leo Tolstoy’s tragic novel Anna Karenina retains its magnetic force.
Could the provocatively contradictory truths of this opening line be applicable to political institutions? After all, don’t South African political parties sometimes behave like families whose dirty linen is not supposed to be washed in public and whose members are supposed to defend and protect one another at all costs?
Consider some recent “unhappinesses” of the top two political parties in South Africa. Isn’t each party unhappy in its own, unique and spectacular way? Let us take three case studies.
We start with the ANC and its “Supra Mahumapelo problem” - for which the ANC has had to spend its constitutional overdraft, by invoking section 100 of the constitution. For several reasons, this particular section is not a place the ruling party would like to frequent. This time around, it did all it could to delay and if possible avoid “going there”.
Since 1998, the ANC has appealed to sections 100 and 139 of the constitution, both of which give the national and provincial governments powers to direct and/or take over the functions of provincial and the municipal governments, respectively.
The most infamous of such interventions was the December 2011 take-over of five departments in Limpopo. The accusation, which has never been satisfactorily rebuffed, is that the Limpopo intervention was nothing but a means of settling political scores.
There are other reasons to be wary. The invocation of section 100, in such a comprehensive manner as envisaged in the North West, is a back-handed admission of failure - the failure of party governance, party authority and party oversight.
Ordinarily, the ANC constitution, codes of conduct, processes and structures should be able to address governance challenges, especially when these relate to the delinquency of the party’s deployees.
But the kind of thoroughgoing invocation of section 100 which the ANC is unleashing in the North West is also a painful acknowledgement that the famed DD Mabuza-inspired unity project is dead in the water. The basic factions remain intact. The ‘Supra-novas’ of the North West are nothing but a virulent manifestation of the same old disease of the post-2007 ANC. Mahumapelo is the latest embodiment of the Zuma-ists and perhaps one of their many last-stands. Now, the ANC has had to use the financially and politically costly sledgehammer of section 100.
The second case study is that of Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille - mayor until next Friday, at least.
The current phase of the DA vs De Lille saga is vexing. Although there is no love lost between the two parties, and the one had already kicked the other out while another has allegedly threatened to walk away, this week a court ruled that they should try to love one another at least for 12 or more days, “for the sake of the children”. The “children” in this case are the citizens of Cape Town and the governance of that city.
Remember the marriage vow about what God has joined together? In relation to the DA and De Lille, the question is, can the courts join together what God seems to have already put asunder? If this week’s court judgment and the way this saga has panned out is anything to go by, it is unlikely to come to a finality on Friday. The Constitutional Court should be on standby. When it comes to the desire to rid itself of De Lille, it seems the DA has followed a scorched-earth set of strategies and tactics. It appears to have thrown everything, including the kitchen sink and the toilet cistern, at her.
The Eusebius McKaiser interview of De Lille on April 26 could not have come to the DA at a more opportune time. On the basis of what she said during that interview, the DA invoked a clause in its constitution which gave it a short-cut, which was to summarily abandon the disciplinary process it had instituted against her.
It proceeded to terminate her membership, in that way ending her mayorship (until the courts gave her temporary reprieve).
That said, it was intriguing to hear De Lille back on the McKaiser show earlier this week, when she was particularly mealy-mouthed as she fumbled badly. Does she have a death-wish of sorts?
What remains clear is that the level of animosity between De Lille and the DA is such that while both parties may wax lyrical about their concern for the people of Cape Town, no one can take them seriously at this stage.
Finally, we refer briefly to Mmusi Maimane’s Freedom Day speech in which he touched on white privilege. It was a fairly innocuous speech. He tried to contrast his wife’s privileges against his lack thereof. It seems that the main aim of the speech had less to do with white privilege and more to do with a desire to punch holes in the ANC-EFF campaign for land expropriation without compensation. Maimane tried to pit land ownership against house ownership. His message was that the ANC-EFF promise to make you tenants on state land, but the DA will enable you to own houses.
It was quite surprising to hear that this rather mild speech irked members of the DA caucus, causing them to interrogate him.
DA deputy chair of the party’s federal council Natasha Mazzone tweeted: “My father arrived from Naples in Italy, he was dark and could not speak English or Afrikaans, but he was a great chef. He built himself up from nothing to make a good life for his family. I honour and thank him.”
Mazzone’s point - which she subsequently tried to either minimise and/or deny - seems to have been that “not all whites are privileged”. If our inference is correct, Maimane was probably rapped over the knuckles for seeming to assume that all whites were privileged. No one knows what political fate will befall Mahumapelo, De Lille and Maimane in the future. Supra is likely to ride his horse triumphantly into an opulent sunset, to the soundtrack of Frank Sinatra’s My Way. He may become our next ambassador. The DA leadership detests De Lillie, and she it. This “marriage” is over. I doubt whether courts alone can clear her name - whatever its final decision. Will the people of Cape Town punish the DA in the next elections? Fortunately for the DA, the ANC in the Western Cape remains in near-total disarray.
Maimane should study the De Lille saga very closely. He may “star” in a similar role and movie. Similarly, De Lille should have taken careful note of how former DA parliamentary leader, Lindiwe Mazibuko, was off-loaded into the deep blue sea.
* Maluleke is a professor at the University of Pretoria. He writes in his personal capacity. Follow him on Twitter @ProfTinyiko