Analyst likens politicians to reptiles: ‘MK, PA, EFF and DA are all the same’

Unlike previous polls, this year’s general election is expected to be the ugliest yet, with politicians using every trick in the book to sway voters to support their parties.

With outrageous promises and tone-deaf comments from politicians, political analyst Goodenough Mashego said, the upcoming general elections would be a real watershed moment, with politicians reflecting their frustrations.

“Some people will say 1994 was a watershed election. It wasn’t.

“In 1994, even when we went to vote, the outcome of it was complete. Everybody knew the ANC was going to win. Everybody knew Nelson Mandela was going to be president and everybody knew the Western Cape would likely go to the National Party and KwaZulu-Natal to the IFP [Inkatha Freedom Party],” he said.

First real watershed election

“This year is the first real watershed election whereby nobody can tell you today who’s going to govern after May, because there is not a single party that is going to get above 50%.”

Politicians seemed to be detached from reality or so obsessed with scoring political points they don’t let facts get in the way.

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For instance, deputy chair of the National Council of Provinces Sylvia Lucas was berated for saying during the debate on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) that “load shedding isn’t the end of the world”.

She added: “President, as soon as you talk about load shedding, there is sabotage, we must look into that.”

Zuma talked about life under MK

Former president Jacob Zuma has talked about life under the newly formed uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party.

“After matric, kids will be trained to become soldiers to be taught to fight before they can be enrolled for university. They must learn to fight and defend their nation. Once they are there, they will learn discipline.

“We will also choose for them what courses to study. We cannot have people who are not respectful.”

He said once the MK took over, he would urgently make changes to the constitution as he believed it was “unfair to African people”.

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Minister of Human Settlements Mmamoloko Kubayi also found herself in the firing line.

She said: “When the constitution says to us that … people have a right to shelter, it’s not that it says it must be done by government. We must create a conducive environment for people to have shelter in the private space.”

She has been accused of contradicting the very constitution she referenced.

Politicians detached

According to Mashego, such comments spoke of detachment, and were made by politicians, not churches or business.

“You don’t hear CEOs of companies say the same thing, or board chairs saying such things or using the same language. You do not hear Johann Rupert or Patrice Motsepe, or whoever, using the same language,” he said.

“The politicians are detached from the reality of people on the ground because in South Africa when you talk about the top ending class then you are talking about the political elite – which in any society disqualifies them from speaking for the poor. They are detached from what the poor are going through on the ground.

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“The only people whose access they care about are the people in business that are earning above the politicians. But you can see the utterances are calculated because they know at the end of the day, the share needs to perform for them to make money.”

Don’t believe MK, PA, EFF and DA are different

Mashego said the public should not believe that those in MK, Patriotic Alliance, Economic Freedom Fighters or the Democratic Alliance (DA) were different.

“It’s when we talk about lizards … we are talking about reptiles, which is all these crawling creatures, and politicians are all reptiles,” he said.

Mashego added that responses from politicians, be it at the Sona or in other general discussions, were a result of the electoral system.

“The whole political class is insulting and they did not care. What is needed is changing the electoral system, whereby people elect their own people directly.

“Either way, whatever party comes into power, corruption, detachment will continue because … they’ll always sing for the person who paid them.”

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DA criticised for dishonesty in claims

The DA was also criticised for dishonesty in its claims regarding the outcomes of voter registration.

“It announced it outperformed the ANC in the new voter registrations and re-registrations but the Electoral Commission of South Africa said voter registration did not record political party preferences but for someone to be on the voter’s roll.

Another political analyst, Prof Siphamandla Zondi, said competition was stiff and many parties were not sure about whether they would make their mark, so one should expect outrageous promises and unrealistic calls.

It was the nature of politics that when outside of power, one should be able to promise “heaven on earth” because there was no track record to speak of.

“Those who are in power speak from track record. They have this advantage of talking about what they have done. Those who are outside power need to talk about what they can do,” he said.

“So it’s about a period we have not arrived at yet, capacities we have not seen yet and a time period we have not witnessed yet.”

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