Zille’s slap on the wrist disquieting

If there is any clearer indication that this country is in a state of turmoil it is the sight of the two most significant political parties doing their level best to self-destruct.

The DA, this fractured nation’s official opposition, put what amounted to a sticking plaster over the sulphurous boil of the embarrassment caused by former leader Helen Zille’s tweet on colonialism.

In the prevailing climate, Zille’s tweet was certainly uncalled for and, for a woman as proud and normally astute as she has proved time and again to be, both of these qualities were evident in what proved to be a somewhat powder puff ticking-off from DA leader Mmusi Maimane and a patently scripted apology from Zille, made for the sake of party unity.

The call for “party unity” was raised by ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe during the party’s recent national executive conference in Pretoria to hold back a motion to remove President Jacob Zuma over the growing disquiet at what appears to be endemic corruption among the ruling elite.

It is like the DA’s solution to distance Zille from every aspect of the party’s policy-making, apart from that pertaining to the Western Cape, where she remains the premier. Mantashe’s signal call had all the appearances of being prepared beforehand, the pre-tailoring of a protective asbestos coat to still the fires of discontent over the divides within the ANC.

Hanging heavily over the thinking of all political parties is the 2019 general election and, more specifically, who stands to gain by either standing back and waiting for the smoke to clear, or entering the fray. The EFF and trade union federation Cosatu have, it seems, decided on the latter route, while the SA Communist Party has raised the spectre of floating their own branded candidates.

Right now, an air of uncertainty reigns.