The need for another ‘Dakar’ moment

There is no doubt in my mind that the DA needs an ANC to stabilise the South African body politic. Nor is there any doubt in my mind that the ANC needs the DA to deliver it from the multiple service delivery nightmares that its cadres have brought upon it.

Yet the two parties each continue to believe that the one can do without the other.

Stoking the election rhetoric with insults and sideswipes, both pretend that they can’t stand each other. But behind closed doors, the intensity of their love can no longer be denied.

The ANC once married the NNP, also an erstwhile enemy, only to find that the NPP did not have the stamina to keep up with the adventurous prowess of the ANC.

This led to its early death. Since then, both the ANC and DA have not had much luck in matters of love, despite many suitors ringing their doorbells.

The ANC has all but given up on its RET rhetoric, while the DA knows that its flirtations with colonially appreciative utterances were utter foolishness. Both have quietly moved to more centrist political positions. The ANC hopes that its nationalist and leftist members will quickly find other political homes, while the DA is praying fervently that some of its more troublesome members will retire quietly to a Karoo town. Or to the Durban North Coast.

South Africa has always been a fairly conservative country, given its many cultural and religious roots, with a celebratory tolerance post-democracy for a myriad diversities that may offend but not insult.

This soft centre of our democracy is also where exploitation and corruption have found continued fresh oxygen. Both those on the right and left have used this centre in which our democracy had to bloom for their own nefarious purposes.

But that soft centre, the nurturing room of our democracy and the festival of our freedoms, is still there, waiting on those who truly know how to love it and grow it, to come together to heal its wounds, massage its many scars and take up its mantle with wisdom and intelligence to lead a country and help lead a continent.

The ANC and the DA can either be partners in a macabre re-enactment of Romeo and Juliet, thinking that the two political families will mourn their tragic suicides, and so end their feud, or it can go stand in that abused centre of our democracy and our freedom, denounce party pride and political arrogance, and courageously find each other.

Of the over 17 million people who cast a ballot in 2019, the two parties collectively received just over 13.6 million votes, or 80% of the total votes cast. That’s the moonshot right there. There is minimal numerical risk to a coalition that strong in numbers.

The real risks, however, are three things: ideological entrenchment, leadership arrogance and party funder demands. Who will have the vision, the maturity and the humility to pick up the mantle where it was left on December 20, 1997 and continue the long journey to deepen and secure South Africa’s freedom?

What we have learnt from coalitions in South Africa is that coalitions that consist of 1% or 2% majorities are not worth the risk. And multiple coalitions that all bring their 1% or 2% vote wins into a coalition are even worse. The political circus will have truly captured our fragile political centre.

The mood resonating across the length and breadth of our land is whether we have leaders with the maturity to find each other with humility and courage to cross the bridge of our ideological divides and leadership arrogance.

Across that bridge is the country we cannot yet see, but which we know we need. Somewhere in the belly of the ANC and the DA are leaders who understand the need for another “Dakar” moment in our politics.

* Lorenzo A. Davids.

** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.

Cape Argus

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