Political parties not there to serve South Africans but interests of elites, says political analyst

South African political parties are not governed by principles but by how they can gain financially, says political analyst Xolani Dube.

“It is about what they gain at that particular moment, if they do not gain then they change.”

Dube was speaking to The Citizen following the recent public spat between the Democratic Alliance (DA) and ActionSA after losing the Johannesburg municipality to the ANC last Friday.

Dube said there was a possibility that the ANC, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and ActionSA will work together to topple the Tshwane-led DA coalition in the near future.

He said political parties are not there to serve South Africans but there are there to serve the interests of the elites.

“South African political parties have no principles, they are not grounded on political ideology and there’s nothing that guides them,” said Dube.

“Where there is money, they flow in that direction. At some point, ActionSA told us they won’t work with the DA but they are working with them.

EFF told us they will never work with the ANC but look what they have done. “The problem we have is we have so many expectations of these guys.

Most of the time we analyse them from the point of being true servants of the society, which they are not.

“Politicians are not there as a calling to serve the people and that is why they become superstars and do everything like celebrities For them, it is just a career which must elevate them.”

Dube said those who fund SA political parties pull the strings. “If you look at their policies and at what they are telling us, what they are doing is contrary to their manifestos.”

He said it would not surprise him if ActionSA and the DA would work together again in the future to try and remove the ANC again and he accused the DA of not caring for any other province than the Western Cape.

“Whatever happens in the Gauteng municipalities doesn’t bother them. It is just like Inkatha Freedom Party, they are just concerned about KwaZulu-Natal.

“They do not have the devotion they have in the Western Cape. They have so much to lose there than in Joburg. The DA has invested a lot in the Western Cape.”

Yesterday, former DA member and now ActionSA Gauteng leader Bongani Baloyi said he did not have sympathy for only black people in the DA but also for progressive people who are still in the DA.

“Mpho Phalatse’s mistake was to argue with people who have the birth certificates of the DA. Mpho started opening her grave when started contradicting people like Tony Leon and Helen Zille in public.

Her rise in prominence creates problems for her in terms of leadership of the DA.”

Baloyi said had the national leadership of the DA not interfered with decisions they had made as the coalition partners in Johannesburg, the coalition would still exist in Johannesburg.

“Unfortunately Cape Town makes the decisions.”

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