The tragi-comedy that is SA politics

It’s been a tough one.

The year 2018 came and showed us that no matter how bad things are, there is always room for further degeneration.

Our food tried to kill us, while we lost some of our country’s brightest shining lights in Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Hugh Masekela, Ben Sharpa, HHP, and more. Meanwhile, the likes of AKA kept making music and being on many people’s social media timelines.

To quote the great American philosopher and statesman Donald Trump: “SAD!”

On the political front, we have gone from the “Ramaphoria”, which accompanied the removal of Jacob Zuma from the highest office, and his replacement by Cyril Ramaphosa, to a sad reality check and acceptance of our fate.

This fate involves leaving the recovery of our economic and social health in the hands of the very people who enabled the former president and his lackeys in their hollowing out of every crucial aspect of government and society.

The same people who allowed them to use racial, ethnic and other divisions as tools in their arsenal of distraction, while they had their snouts in the trough.

But it’s a new dawn they say. “We’ll do better. We didn’t know.”

Meanwhile, the ruling party’s branches have shown us that they not only knew and condoned the rot at the top, but that they wish for a return, and care little for the people whose lives they are supposedly trying to improve.

They did this through the nomination of the former president, as well as several of his sacked cronies, for parliamentary positions, while provinces like Gauteng earlier voted to retain those responsible for the Life Esidimeni tragedy in their leadership ranks.

These are the best the party has to offer.

Sad as our current governing party and the opposition DA with their reactionary brand of politics may be, even sadder is the quality of those who would like us to believe they can offer an alternative.

By now, we are all familiar with the toxic brand of the EFF’s rhetoric – and the less said about them and their louder, less eloquent clones, the BLF, the better. The party consists, after all, of little more than former members of the ANC Youth League, dressing up their battle for further access to the gravy train in red onesies and yellow communist sloganeering.

To really illustrate our country’s lack of leadership and political imagination, we must look at the new, smaller contenders in the ring.

First, we have former Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille’s Good, which proves that in South Africa a strong brand and the cult of the personality mean much more than ideology or track record. Since 1994, De Lille has gone from Pan Africanist, to Independent Democrat, to the DA, with their lack of defining ideology, to now simply being a Good enough to draw some votes, recognisable name on the ballot.

Then, we have the man promising to bring “That Thing” to our politics. What that thing is, no one knows, but Hlaudi Motsoeneng believes he has what it takes to not only win a seat in parly, but be president.

Hlaudi is perhaps the best symbol of what our political and social landscape has become. A constant recycling of the mediocre, inept, and sometimes plain stupid.

In the case of Hlaudi, though, I believe he may have some inkling of how much of a joke he is, while I can’t say the same of the rest.

Earl Coetzee.

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