SA needs unity – so compromise

One of the better things to have happened in South African politics was the advent of the government of national unity (GNU)… and those who argue with that should look at the progress being made in formerly moribund and inefficient departments run now by someone other than a deployed ANC cadre.

If that sounds a bit like a plug for the DA, then it is. While party leader John Steenhuisen has been singularly unspectacular in his role as agriculture minister, his colleagues Siviwe Gwarube, Dean Macpherson and Leon Schreiber have made a visible impact on their portfolios of basic education, public works and home affairs respectively.

Even the DA’s enemies have had to grudgingly admit that reality.

Yet, here we are now, possibly looking at the collapse of the GNU and asking why the DA precipitated this crisis with its political brinkmanship and clumsy attempts to score political points by attempting to blackmail the ANC.

We hold no brief for the ANC, but it seems as though the DA decided to use the crisis over the budget to try to extract concessions from that party on matters unrelated to the budget. And, in that role, the DA tried to cast itself as the friend of the poor, in opposing the 0.5 percentage point hike in VAT.

Seriously, who are you trying to kid? If you were alive to the woes of the impoverished, you would have spent more time crafting alternatives than demanding a budget vote in return for the ANC agreeing to your view on the expropriation and basic education amendment laws.

On the other hand, the ANC must shelve its “my way or the highway” arrogance and realise that it is no longer the top dog in politics.

This country desperately needs unity – and if bringing about that unity requires compromise, then so be it.

NOW READ: ANC wants DA and FF+ punished and out of GNU for ‘budget betrayal’ [VIDEO]