A VIEW OF THE WEEK: The ANC and others are about to learn that ‘after school is after school’

Remember when you were in school and you thought you had your whole future mapped out? You didn’t need to consult the bones to know the top achiever would become a super-successful doctor or lawyer. Or that the class clown would struggle once matric ended.

But somehow the top achiever ended up trying to sell Crypto on WhatsApp, and the dropout is making millions.

In the same way, political parties are coming to terms with the reality that their future is not what they expected.

After last month’s national and provincial elections, some became kingmakers and most performed lower than they thought they would and had to abandon their plans.

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The solution was to form a Government of National Unity (GNU). But it’s a solution that has so many parts it threatens to be a Government of uncertainty, inactivity and fragility.

Who are you really serving?

There are, as one politician pointed out this week, too many egos and grudges. When instead there should be more service delivery.

The removal of Ekurhuleni finance MMC Nkululeko Dunga on Wednesday may have had its merits, if it did not carry the stench of political conspiracy. It came at the hour the ANC and EFF’s relationship had soured in coalition talks. It now casts the image that he was a casualty of the fallout.

EFF leader Julius Malema’s threat to pull all his party’s MMCs in response, and by doing so destabilise local governments, is an immature one.

A few minutes later ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula alluded that if the people of Gauteng had not rejected the ANC in the last elections there may have been fewer potholes, less fighting and more “stable” governance.

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He may be right, but it was the ANC’s track record of poor delivery and corruption that saw them kicked out by voters in the first place.

MK party sold SA a scam?

Mbalula preached the sermon of humility and unity but also didn’t spare a bullet when taking a shot at Nkandla.

“We have not excluded any party. It was up to the party that leads in KZN [the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party] to interpret the moment. That party, when it was supposed to interpret the moment and the responsibility that the people of KZN gave it, went to the Constitutional Court,” he said.

Even the great “chess master” Jacob Zuma seems to have overcomplicated his moves.

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Perhaps it was because the former president was taking his chronic prescription of paranoia. Or maybe he was distracted by the law lecture he was giving the country with his constant legal battles?

Either way, the master of political optics and escapes seemed to think the trick was over while other parties moved around him.

Those who trusted him with their vote in the hope of teaching a lesson to the ANC, while staying close to it, were sold snake oil.

In the end, he is not “saving” the ANC, but helping speed up its demise.

SA deserves better

In all of this horse-trading, the people of SA have been shifted again to the back of the queue.

We don’t need the finger-pointing of some parties and the whining of others. We’ve had enough of the bullying into positions of power from a few, and the gossiping of several.

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We need service delivery and stability as a country.

We need to create jobs because we can’t eat promises.

We need quality healthcare instead of nursing political egos.

We need quality education to free us from ignorant arguments.

We need quality roads and rail so we can move forward as people and as a nation.

Exams are over

No matter their behaviour over the last five years, political parties have now been given their report cards.

And in the years ahead the bullies of the playground will learn that they too can get a black eye in the real world of coalitions.

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