When Thapelo Amad Al Jama-ah was elected mayor of Joburg last Friday, there was an uproar over his experience running a municipality as large as Joburg and his party’s lack of a constituency.
It seems that a coalition at the national level would be a disaster, because the country would be in turmoil. The Gauteng municipality shared a preview of South African politics if the 2024 elections produce a national coalition government.
There is no doubt that the coalition in our metro has been disappointed and produced the opposite of what we wanted. Everyone can agree that the coalition in South Africa has led to instability in the administration.
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For example, if it can be seen from the City of Joburg, the continuous change of government has become the order, but the progress of this city has stopped.
Instead of these political parties that have formed a coalition government cooperating and protecting each other, all they do is challenge each other in the corridors of power and sabotage each other in the hope of gaining more political power at the expense of the people. .
While we wait for the promised change, all we have is the domination of squabbles by politicians fighting for political power, while the basic needs of the people and the problem of service delivery are left behind – in the long run, the citizens are more frustrated and with a sense of frustration. total loss of hope in politics.
Now, if we imagine a national coalition government, we will find a situation where each political party in the coalition is pulling in different directions. We will be left with political parties that fail to take responsibility because of the blame game.
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At the moment if there is a problem, we know we will blame the ANC. But in the coalition, the direct party to take the fall will not appear because the finger is pointing everywhere.
In a coalition government, we will end an administration that does not have a clear economic policy, which will discourage investors due to many contradictions.
We may face a new government almost every three months, and this will lead to political instability, which will reduce our position in Africa and global politics. It will further lead to confused civil servants who fail to implement government policies because of differences in political leaders, especially in land and strategic economic sectors.
In a country like ours, a coalition government will make the decision-making process very difficult because political parties are not singing from the same hymn book and each party is trying to strike the same tune.
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But we must remember that this scenario will only happen if the Democratic Alliance partners with the ANC or other political parties, due to various policy differences.
Therefore, the only coalition that can have a sense of stability is the ANC and the Economic Freedom Fighters because the differences are not too wide. The battle between the two will be personalities, rather than ideologies that determine the direction of the country.
As much as a coalition government can provide a sense of responsibility from politicians in a general sense, South Africa is not yet at that level due to the immaturity found in political parties that fail to put aside their differences for the benefit of the people.
Maybe a direct vote for each general representative would be more effective than a coalition.
-Mthembu is a News24 Young Mandela 2022 winner in the leadership category.