Beyond ANC Rule: SA politics needs to progress

As we head towards the 2024 national government elections, it is important that there are more nuanced electoral debates to prompt national discussion about the shifting political landscape and the aspirations of the electorate of a prospective coalition-led government beyond the short-sighted thinking of ousting the ANC from majority rule.

Irrespective of what the dominant narrative is now, the ousting of the ANC is not virtuous. To accept this proposition is to adhere to a false sense of political security.

There is no virtue in politics.

Politics is driven by contested interests.

This precarious political juncture demands an introspective pause in conventional political tools of analysis in challenging implicit and explicit power transactions.

There is a dire need to move away from singular narrative political analysis towards a more nuanced globally informed engagement that attempts to articulate, anticipate and respond to the balance of forces.

This is an imperative step in mapping out a transitional developmental pathway that speaks to preserving the legitimacy and interests of our democracy.

Attempts to acknowledge the existence of lobby group activity, their active participation in politics and extent of influence is ridiculed as lacking credibility.

To reduce lobby group activity to slogans such as “white monopoly capital” is a distraction that responds to the symptom and does not address the underlying key issues of contention.

Nor does it attempt to broaden the scope of debate by interrogating the multifaceted interests that attempt to influence and or dictate the terms of reference of SA’s political economy.

As such, accountability seeking questions are needed in how these groups gain access and build relationships with policy makers, political parties, the economy, non-profit organisations and the media?

Who facilitates these relationships? What accountability mechanisms and frameworks are in place to ensure that SA first and foremost accounts to her citizens and not foreign interests?

The systematic mapping of these relationships is imperative if the electorate is to understand how states, privately owned organisations and/or institutions influence policy and for what purpose.

Leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA) John Steenhuisen has made two critical visits out of state – to Ukraine and Washington.

The DA visit to Ukraine was a necessary strategic political move in lobbying Washington, in reaffirming its position and alliance to the West and garnering further support heading towards the 2024 national government elections.

Therefore, it is not surprising that the DA has remained steadfast to its political policy position on Brics and the latest Lady R report.

The question then remains: what, if any, support will the DA receive in return for loyalty?

Herman Mashaba, president of ActionSA, in a keynote address to corporate SA, said: “When I am president SA will not do business with Brics.”

I ask the question: who was Mashaba’s target audience and for what purpose? Lastly, let us critically engage the ANC-led government “implementation model” of the Just Transitions policy position.

The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation 2021 report states it can be argued that SA is still stuck in the Second and Third Industrial Revolutions.

What then informs the rate and scale of implementation in the context of SA’s own developmental imperatives?

How effective is the existing implementation model in responding to SA’s immediate energy crisis and what justification is the ANC-led government giving for the estimated 60 million tons of coal exported to Europe (Bloomberg report, 2023)?

Lobby group activity in SA can no longer be denied.

It is a thriving industry that is informed by a needs and/or interest-based engagement. And with the perspective of a coalition-led government for 2024 and beyond, the electorate must brace itself for a spike in activity.

Therefore, the ultimate accountability mechanism is for the electorate to assume the role of political arbitrator constantly seeking to establish a balance between building relations versus advancing SA’s political interests and developmental agenda