The ANC should teach other parties how to be mature democratic players

The Israel-Palestine issue remains a deeply sensitive matter and the ANC leaders should stop trivialising it for political point-scoring.

Just recently, the ANC in Joburg attempted to discredit Joburg’s mayor, Mpho Phalatse, by ridiculing her for her comments on the issue of Israel-Palestine.

The ANC, as led by its mayoral candidate Mpho Moerane, decided to disrupt the meeting (the acceptance speech) when the executive mayor was on the podium.

They failed to change Phalatse’s political views which, in any event, would not affect the service delivery for the people of Joburg.

It is still shocking to imagine how an international issue came up at a forum meant to deal with bread-and-butter issues.

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Local government should simply be about rendering daily services needed by the community it serves.

It shouldn’t concern itself with foreign affairs because that is the responsibility of the national government.

Politics should be a contest between innovative ideas, that democratically win people over by selling ideas that people can associate with.

South Africa’s politics, however, usually consists of hurling insults at or attacking opponents with a minimum of substantive arguments or deliberations.

The ANC, both at the central and local levels, has been in power since 1994.

They remain the only party with extensive experience concerning issues of government. However, they are failing
to demonstrate maturity, especially when they are on the opposition benches in the council.

It is quite disheartening to witness the party in this hooliganism mode.

Such cheap political tactics will definitely work against them and result in their being on the opposition benches for another term.

They are failing to become an efficient opposition to the Democratic Alliance (DA) and, in so doing, are missing a golden opportunity of entrenching democratic values and showing the importance of multi-party democracy.

The idea behind using the Israel-Palestine conflict by the ANC was simply to inflame the parties which voted with the DA inside the council – but the plan did not work.

When they looked around, they realised that there was definitely nothing to use against Phalatse, the first female mayor of Joburg. She is seemingly the gift that Joburg longed for.

For those who can hear and see, it is now becoming clear why some politicians resort to using the Israel-Palestine issue: it is just an attempt to distract people from the main business to be done.

Nevertheless, whether Phalatse supports Israel or Palestine is immaterial to the business of the city she will be running for the next five years. What is of importance is whether she is able to fix the city and make it a better place in which to work, play and live, compared to how the ANC ran it.

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The ANC’s Moerane ran and lost the mayoral candidacy to Phalatse. Moerane should not hold the city of Joburg to ransom because of his personal ego.

He should rather think of the millions of people who are held hostage by him and his party.

The ANC should up its game and teach small, new parties how to be mature democratic players – that is if it knows.

The way it conducts itself makes one unsure of even this. Can Moerane tell us how the issue of Israel-Palestine
can directly or indirectly benefit the City of Joburg?

Does he really understand the competencies of local government?

• Mokgatlhe is a political commentator.