What putting South Africa first looks like

The parties in government, especially the DA and ANC, must each independently adopt a “Put South Africa first” stance.

It’s a stance that smaller parties like Mmusi Maimane’s Build One South Africa, Rise Mzansi’s Songezo Zibi and Herman Mashaba’s ActionSA have been pushing.

They talk about putting the interests of South Africa ahead of any interest group.

What this means for the DA is that it must change its outlook from that of looking out just for the section of the population who own the wealth of this country and feel threatened by any project that is aimed at addressing past injustices.

The DA cannot play both government and opposition at the same time, especially opposition that joins interest groups that go overseas fearmongering about impending doomsday landgrabs that they know are lies.

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What it means for the ANC is that its secretary-general must stop addressing his party’s main partners in the GNU as schoolchildren who need to be told when to sit and when to stand up.

“If the DA wants to leave they can leave, we have other partners waiting to come on board to replace them” sounds radical only to those partners whom the ANC saw as unsuitable to form government with just 10 months ago.

Dissolving the GNU to make a political point to the party that ditched the opposition benches to ensure the country is not without government for a long period is just as irresponsible as willing Trump to “punish” South Africa because the country does not dance to his tune.

The true definition of putting South Africa first is each party measuring its everyday actions against the National Development Plan (2030).

Each party should be asking itself if its arrogance in any way helps the poorest of the poor whom they all cite as the reason for their actions.

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