Learning from 1996: GNU must prioritise national interests

Experiences are nothing if you don’t learn from them… and a warning about that for the politicians in the government of national unity (GNU) has come from someone who has walked that road.

Former National Party stalwart Roelf Meyer – one of the negotiators who helped bring about the “new South Africa” in the 1990s – has urged GNU members to put national above party-political interests.

He regretted the National Party’s decision to leave the GNU in 1996, during the Nelson Mandela presidency.

“This led to the NP collapse and disappearance from the political scene – something sending a strong message to the current GNU leadership.”

ALSO READ: ‘GNU must foster dignity’: Political leadership challenged to empower all South Africans

His comments came as bickering within the GNU ratcheted up over the past few weeks, with clashes between the ANC and DA, particularly about whether government decisions can be made unilaterally – as the DA accuses the ANC of doing – or whether there must be consensus.

What Meyer is saying is: Take a long view. Don’t act in the heat of the moment and exit an arrangement which really can take the country forward.

This might be, as the song suggests, the “last dance” and the “last chance” for that political romance, which will spark a long-term marriage.