Time to salvage dreams of Codesa

As the horse trading begins between political parties after the declaration of the election results, the country might seem to be in a dangerous state of flux, especially considering the threats by Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe party that there might be violence because the counting was “rigged”.

But, let’s all take a step back and follow that with a deep breath. We’ve been here before – and in an even more perilous situation, as the country teetered on the brink of civil war in the ’90s – and we did it.

We put together a government of national unity, where political parties shelved their rhetoric in favour of reconciliation and put their shoulders to the wheel in the interests of South Africa. And it worked…

Today may be different, though, in a number of important ways. Back then, we had Nelson Mandela to inspire us and Archbishop Desmond Tutu to remind us that we could be “the Rainbow Nation”.

Now, we have a state teetering on failure, thanks to weapons-grade looting that has, effectively, stalled the laudable ANC transformation project and manifestly not provided their promised “better life for all”.

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The gulf between races has widened as politicians of all stripes have sought to allocate blame for the failure to deliver… and Jacob Zuma himself is one of the main culprits, having used the services, ironically, of a white PR company in London to craft his divisive messages.

This election campaign hasn’t helped the idea of unity either, with many parties removing the gloves to attack their opponents.

All of those petty political hatchets need to be buried, as both President Cyril Ramaphosa and Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen said, in the interests of the people of South Africa.

Our people, and the world, will be watching to see if we can salvage the optimistic dreams of those Codesa years.