Nkosikhulule Nyembezi
Cape Town - The bickering by opposition parties over sponsoring a vote no confidence in President Cyril Ramaphosa makes a lively spectacle.
Still, it gives a narrow party interest frame to broader national issues.
Take the example of August 17. Seven opposition parties decided to bring a motion of no confidence in President Ramaphosa to trigger his removal from office to allow investigations into the theft of foreign currency from his Phala Phala game farm to proceed unhindered.
This decision followed two months after the African Transformation Movement (ATM) tabled a section 89 motion to impeach Ramaphosa on charges of breaching the Constitution on several official responsibilities.
The timetable for implementing the Zondo Commission recommendations was supposed to be tight, with prosecution and conviction of wrongdoers rolling out without gratuitous delay.
But in the absence of a functional government, it feels interminable. Parliamentarians have awarded themselves a winter of sabbatical leave, despite mounting evidence that South Africa is heading for an autumn of discontent, leading to a winter of strife.
Reports of a ferocious storm of poor economic growth and poor government performance shock are due when Statistics SA releases the latest survey results and when Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana presents the Mid-Term Policy Budget Statement at the start of October. Inflation is degrading household incomes. Factional political party battles continue to strangle the performance of government departments, especially in municipalities. The lack of direction from the Union Buildings and Parliament would be a problem enough to crack our heads on.
Still, the character of the leadership style of politicians handling the impeachment proceedings for the Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, Western Cape Judge President Hlophe, and the various politicians implicated in corruption such as Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm saga – petty, bitter, divisive and unequal to the scale of the task ahead – compounds the issue of a country drifting aimlessly into crisis.
Neither of the categories of elected public representatives has displayed any imagination in responding to the corruption and wastage of public resources crisis.
Also, the contest for the limelight in the talk about moving a vote of no confidence in Ramaphosa gives them the incentive to appeal only to a dwindling, primarily political party-affiliated, and splintered electorate.
Their prescriptions for shielding people from the coming storm are written for an audience disproportionately protected already – civil servants benefiting from the perks of permanent jobs.
There is procedural and tactical disagreement between opposition parties that have been trying to work in concert on the section 89 process.
They have, since last month, been caucusing to reach consensus on nominations to the three-person panel to advise the National Assembly on whether there is prima facie evidence that Ramaphosa broke the law.
After three meetings, they nominated former Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, former Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke, former Constitutional Court Justice Yvonne Mokgoro and former Judge President Bernard Ngoepe.
In doing so, they are hoping to limit the Speaker’s discretion in the matter, or at least for it to be a matter of public record, should she ignore the opposition nominations in favour of the names proposed by the ANC.
But the frame of the discussion is heavily skewed in favour of narrow political interests, and it ignores the interests of the general public.
It is a conversation predicated on a deep suspicion of Ramaphosa’s ability to discharge his critical role in implementing the Zondo Commission recommendations.
In theory, the opposition parties’ approach to the Ramaphosa leadership deficiencies could be more munificent.
Still, they can hardly be said to be in the nation’s interest when their approach desperately needs meaningful political investment.
What the debate lacks in intellectual breadth, it makes up for in personal attacks.
Malema’s later stirring of the political pot, saying the Jacob Zuma-aligned ANC radical economic transformation (RET) faction is as confused about former spy chief Arthur Fraser’s intentions with the Phala Phala offensive against Ramaphosa, as the rest of the country.
According to media reports, he said while many think Fraser is batting for the RET forces – whose most famous face Zuma appointed as spy boss – the real force behind the man is former President Thabo Mbeki. Malema’s theory is that Mbeki is intent on making a comeback to lead the ANC.
The DA has been part of these talks but withdrew on August 16, in a letter expressing concern that the new motion would detract from the section 89 process.
Other opposition parties believe it would be appropriate for the DA, as the official opposition, to table the motion against Ramaphosa and hoped he could yet persuade them to do so.
The DA has reasoned that this route may, at most, yield an afternoon of fiery debate. In contrast, the section 89 process will see an interrogation of all the allegations Ramaphosa faces in the Farmgate debacle.
The opposition-on-opposition skirmishing is unedifying, and the personal vendetta-on-vendetta political frame deprives the country of a balanced view.
It is an unhealthy ratchet effect that drags all of politics towards partisan opposition talking points, ahead of the ANC elective conference in December.
Opposition parties are not involved in the election of an ANC leader, but that isn’t preventing them from engaging with the issues challenging Ramaphosa’s position in the ANC.
The gravity of the situation demands a broader range of voices calling for Ramaphosa’s support to lead the government’s implementation of the Zondo Commission’s recommendations without hindrance and with the full cooperation of opposition parties in Parliament.
The little that remains of the ANC’s credibility after the poor showing in the 2021 local government elections last November and, after Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm saga, is now frittered away by the opposition parties in vacuous bickering adjacent to the real issues.
That is a long-term problem for the opposition politics in the country. There is tactical wisdom in Napoleon’s counsel that enemies should not be interrupted when making mistakes.
Still, discretion is also not the best strategy when the country needs to hear about the alternatives from the collective efforts of opposition parties to hold the governing ANC accountable.
But when the contest for political influence reaches the 2024 national and provincial election, and its narrow, dogmatic and partisan terms have boxed the current ANC leadership into bad missteps in implementing the Zondo Commission recommendations, it will become an urgent problem for the country.
Nyembezi is an activist and policy analyst
Cape Times