DEAR Editor,-
Recent scenes at our national parliament in Cape Town have left most patriotic South Africans seriously worried. While our parliament has always been robust, never before has the decorum been discarded to the extent that it is now.
The speaker, Baleka Mbete and the ANC have been on the receiving end of editorial onslaught by the media and some political analysts, accusing them of being the cause for the behaviour of the opposition parties.
What has been missing is such scathing criticism of the speaker and the ANC has been a sober and objective critic of the modus operandi that has been adopted by the opposition parties since the beginning of our fifth democratic parliament.
While such kind of behaviour was to be expected of the EFF, most of us have been taken aback by the DA’s quick adoption of the EFF’s ‘unparliamentary’ tactics.
Any opposition party worth its seats in parliament would have aspirations of one day taking over as the ruling party. If indeed the DA does entertain such aspirations, then they must careful about the kind of the precedent they set in terms of how the opposition behaves.
As for Mmusi Maimane, I suspect that history will judge him as the weakest DA parliamentary leader since its formation, notwithstanding his immense oratory abilities.
It would seem to me that Julius Malema has become the de facto leader of the opposition, with Mmusi Maimane being the spokesperson.
SABELO NGCOBO
Port Shepstone
