A Tale of Two Parties
I have recently heard one particular comment about the DA repeated often: “Why are the DA picking on the ANC?”, or some variant of that. This article will attempt to address what I believe to be the three main reasons for what appears to be an oddly strong focus on criticism of the ANC by the DA.
Stating from the basics: the DA is a political party in a democratic country. Assuming, for now, an ideal world, we can say that there are two main things the DA should be doing before elections: they should construct a plan of action for leading and governing South Africa (or a province, or municipality) and they should inform the public of the plan, including promoting their plan as the best option. In the ideal order of things, the DA should be fully convinced that its plan is the best for South Africa, and as such should campaign and promote that plan as thoroughly as they are able to, for the sake of South Africa, from their point of view. It is then up to the voters to decide which party's plan truly would be the best for SA.
In designing and promoting their plan of action, the DA should focus on two broad fields: addressing the needs, problems and concerns of the public, and taking initiative with ways to improve South Africa as a whole. In its heavy and constant criticism of the ANC, the DA are firstly addressing a concern of the public; the concern that the ANC is letting South Africa down. Secondly, the DA are doing their best to have their plan accepted – the plan they believe per definition to be best for SA – by reducing the votes for the ANC as a priority just second to increasing their own votes by promoting their plan. There is some concern that the DA might be in danger of confusing which priority is first and which second, but criticising the ANC heavily is what they as a political party should be doing from an ideal view of democracy.
The second main reason, is due to the difference between the way South Africa works right now and the way a democracy should work. To define this difference that I refer to, I will first describe an idealistic democracy and its political functioning, then contrast it with our system as it is today.
In an ideal democracy:
Each party focuses on its own plan of action, promoting it to the public, and at most compares their plan of action to other parties' plans (there should be no opportunity to criticise the honour and integrity of a party, in any case).
Once the elections are done and the votes counted, the political parties proportionally represent the population of the country, collaborating to find a suitable compromise weighted by the proportion of the votes each party has.
The opposition parties provide a continuous commentary to the public as to what they think they could do better or what should be done differently. This acts as a way to expand upon and improve the action plan as well as a way to keep the public aware of any matters concerning them and how those matters are being handled, so that they can vote in an informed manner.
The governing party, once elected, does everything it can to implement its plan of action and advance the country, accepting responsibility for (and explaining) any failures to keep to their plan, so that the public can understand what happened and vote accordingly.
In South Africa:
Our political parties spend much of their time attacking and criticising each other's integrity, actions and ideologies. Nothing is respected, and anything opportune is fair game – from personal insults that amount to hate speech, to racial division and slurs. Integrity is ever more rare in our politics.
The party with the majority 'wins' and goes on to rule the country as if by divine decree – so far, that party has been the ANC. As an example of this, any suggestion by the opposition parties that the ANC-constructed budget should be amended or adjusted has been described as nothing short of treason and attempted sabotage by ANC officials. There is no cooperation; at most, opposition parties can stage walkouts and veto constitutional changes.
The opposition parties barely keep up with the failures and bizarre actions of the incumbent governing party. Accusations and shouting fill the air, and everyone is quick to explain what the other parties are doing wrong. Solutions are rare, walkouts and protests are common, and the public is left bewildered and confused by the conflicting viewpoints and even outright lies that saturate our politics.
The ANC has consistently not managed to meet its targets and keep to its stated plan of action. Unexpected and disastrous actions, the recent Nenegate scandal is a suitable example, occur alarmingly often and almost inevitably involve minimal or no consultation with opposition parties, the public, or even most of the ANC. Accepting responsibility has been relegated to history, and replaced with long lists of overused and often nonsensical excuses, race and Apartheid remaining ever popular decades after the transformation. Even individual responsibility is in no way encouraged, let alone enforced, in the ANC – just look at Zuma, Marius Fransman's recent indiscretion or the unapologetic support of the smuggling of an illegal alien into SA by the Minister of Defence herself!
Looking at this massive gap between an ideal democracy and our system, two things are most relevant to the actions of the DA: opposition parties are subtly stripped of any meaningful power or contribution to the governance of the country, even blatantly ignored, and it is nearly impossible to get the ANC to accept the consequences of their actions, the seriousness of their transgressions or the responsibility for their failures. Even the court is hamstrung by an inept and ANC-sympathetic National Prosecuting Authority (just refer to the NPA appeal against the decision to reinstate Zuma's corruption charges – a blatant move to delay the trial yet again).
The DA, in their continuous criticism of the ANC are attempting, so far with little success, to bring us closer to a proper democracy. They are attempting to help the public hold the ANC responsible for what it has done, and what it has promised but not done. They are trying to contribute to the governance of South Africa in the only way that the ANC has not discretely blocked or made irrelevant: by appealing to us, the voters of South Africa, to help make change a reality.
The DA, despite being the second largest party in SA, are flatly ignored in setting up the national budget as well as important legislation like the recent Higher Education and Expropriation Bills. In such an undemocratic atmosphere, the DA resort to the media as their only channel of exerting influence... just like hundreds of South Africans have done in just this past year. The ANC do not listen when spoken to, so anyone with a problem or concern has only one place left: the media (or social media). And with the SABC stepping up pleasant-sounding censorship plans, the criticism must inevitably become ever more heavy while the media is still somewhat free to air it.
Recently, the SABC refused to air a DA election advertisement. The DA claims that it is an attempt to censor them (the opposition to the ANC), while the SABC claim that they are waiting for a final list of participating parties from the IEC before it will air election ads – though a different SABC statement refers to the un-aired ad being a “commercial” ad, rather than an “election” ad (this likely relates to the second ad by the DA that the SABC has delayed broadcasting of) and claims that it will be shown after a normal 5 days to process the ad. While the truth is unclear yet, it is telling that the DA have won a case at Icasa against the SABC before for the exact same thing – and that the SABC are not ready to run election ads barely two months before the election.
While we all wait for the truth to surface in that matter, it is another chilling example of why the DA is striking out with criticism of the ANC: the government seems intent on silencing and marginalising the opposition, and are doing a worryingly good job of it.
The last reason is simpler, though it consists of many parts: the DA, its individual members and the voters supporting them have grown to dislike, even hate the ANC for the incompetent way that they are running the country, for their failures to deliver, for their failures to take responsibility, for the way they encourage racial divides, for the way they abuse the more respectable past of the ANC, for ignoring the public and even their own founding members, etc.
The ANC, particularly Jacob Zuma and his cronies, are making few friends and many enemies amongst the honest people of South Africa. The growing criticism is both a symptom of and contributor to the dissent rising amongst South Africans, and aimed squarely at the ANC.
Yes, the DA should never forget that they are there first and foremost to provide South Africa with the best plan for the way forward that they can provide, but otherwise they should indeed be criticising the ANC with passion and pride, because to do otherwise would be to allow us to drift further from the idealistic democracy that South Africa can be.
Like the DA, and like me, turn your eyes to the ANC and start asking questions. If you see flaws, criticise: either the ANC will do its duty at last and change to suit the needs of the people, or the weight of the criticism they reject will drive them from their once unshakeable seat – a seat that has changed from a chair at a democratic round table to an opulent throne resting on the backs of South African taxpayers.
Sources:
http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/sabc-banned-second-da-advert---zille-1681914
http://ewn.co.za/2016/05/30/DA-takes-battle-with-SABC-to-Icasa