ANC wants to have its cake and eat it

It is understandable that some South Africans – encouraged by the apparent success of the government of national unity (GNU) – are now, in the wake of the ousting of DA Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink, wondering what the ANC is playing at.

After the May general election, the formation of the GNU promised to put the country on a new, more inclusive governance path.

The ANC, of course, didn’t really have many options in the wake of the humbling 40% it managed to garner in the national vote… it remained the biggest party in the country in numbers, but its idea that it could one day be the “sole and authentic representative” of the people of this country was well and truly dashed.

The party knew that getting into bed with radicals like the EFF, or Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe party, would probably see economic confidence collapse.

At the beginning, it seemed as though the message out of the GNU – let’s put away our differences and work together – was going to filter down to the provinces and municipalities.

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That started falling apart in Gauteng, where the ambitious premier, Panyaza Lesufi, was anxious to keep a tight grip on power to divert attention from the fact his province was the worst ANC performer, outside of the Western Cape, in the elections.

The DA seems to think Lesufi and his comrades defied their national organisation in engineering the collapse of the coalition in Tshwane.

But we wonder, in the absence of any reprimand from the ANC national structures, whether this was not the intention of the party all along.

It seems as though the ANC wants to have its cake and eat it: soothing unity at the Union Buildings but preparing the way to demolish the DA at the local government elections in 2026.