So, 2024. Election. South Africa goes to the polls with all-time lows and evidence of “state-sponsored” corruption, looting and fraud still dominates daily newspaper headlines.
As a nation, the majority of whom are unemployed, we once again stood in line for hours, determined to make another change – to rid our country of a government that is not interested in the voters – as we did in 1994.
Then, the SA Election Commission released the results. No party has an outright majority. The country is in limbo. After several days, or weeks, of deliberation, the group of opposition parties previously formed a coalition. In the National Assembly, they elected a new president.
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President Cyril Ramaphosa, in the most important and extraordinary demonstration of democracy, ascended to the podium. First, he congratulated the incumbent president, then as a show of his and the ANC’s commitment to democracy, he symbolically handed over the keys to the new president.
“The keys to parliament, De Tuynhuys, and the Treasury are now in your hands,” he said. The country is happy, and we all live happily.
indeed? Anyone who believes this mumbo jumbo needs to wake up and smell the kakiebos! There are only two possibilities for the ANC to hand over political power in this country peacefully: fat and slim.
Let’s not forget that it was the ANC that played a major role in ensuring that Zanu-PF remained in power in Zimbabwe after losing the 2008 Elections to Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change, only to hold subsequent runoff elections.
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Even Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general of the United Nations, said that a round election “would have no legitimacy”.
So, where does that leave us here and now? DA leader John Steenhuisen needs to work more closely with his allies – the current coalition partners – because come next year, he needs a team to back him up. Except his best friend is the Dutch ambassador.