NICHOLAS WOODE-SMITH: Opposition needs to be better than it ever intended

The audit results for the opposition coalition-run City of Tshwane were disappointing to say the least. The DA-led coalition in Tshwane has been faced with accusations of financial irregularities, failing to submit correct financial statements to the auditor-general, overpayment of councillors, and irregular expenditure of R10.5bn. And that’s just scraping the surface.

Coalition leaders have been meeting to address the audit results. The ANC in Tshwane has accused the DA of forming a coalition merely to oust the ANC, while never being ready to address the endemic problems in the city. A silly accusation in itself, as the ANC caused the problems in the first place.

As a result of the audit criminal charges have been laid against the now former CFO, professional external auditors have been appointed, additional audits are being implemented, and disciplinary action is to be taken against liable officials — among other measures. The response has been good. But the damage has been done.

The coalition did inherit a bankrupt, corrupt and diseased city from the ANC. Blame cannot lie wholly with the DA or the other coalition members. But politics is an unforgiving game and voters will punish the opposition parties at the ballot box regardless of who is truly to blame.

For the ANC to be unseated at the national level and for SA to finally become stable and prosperous, opposition parties cannot merely be better than the ANC. They must perform to the highest standard possible. What the coalition governments of Tshwane, Johannesburg and elsewhere have proven is that while unseating the ANC is necessary to achieve progress in SA, it is far from sufficient.

Opposition parties must get serious about governing. Really serious. While they have focused on picketing, marketing and politicking, they’ve forgotten that governance after being elected is more important than being elected itself. Post-ANC Tshwane and Johannesburg proved little different to ANC-governance, and voters have become despondent as a result. Opposition parties and coalitions can no longer rely on the ANC’s failings to propel them into popularity. They must become decent in their own right.

Unfortunately, SA has a weird phenomenon where the governing party is simultaneously easy to oppose due to its inadequacy, while also being hard to supplant due to insurmountable voter fanaticism. The latter is starting to shift, with the Brenthurst Foundation polling the ANC’s results in 2024 at under 50%. But the former phenomenon of the ANC’s incompetence has left the opposition soft, apathetic and lazy.

When it is too easy to oppose the governing party, the opposition becomes a reflection of the governing party’s incompetence. Why do better when mediocrity is the better alternative? But SA needs more than mediocrity.

The ANC is defeating itself in the eyes of voters and will most likely need to enter into its own national coalition in 2024 to maintain power. And while this may sound good, it may lead to the ANC forming alliances with even worse parties. Corrupt and ideologically malicious parties like the EFF and Patriotic Alliance may use their newfound kingmaking abilities to implement dire policies for the country.

Alternatively, an unprepared opposition coalition coming to power may also not be what SA needs. A non-ANC government failing to address SA’s crises will simply appear to vindicate the ANC and bolster its support. For this reason, opposition parties must get their acts together. At the moment opposition coalitions are plagued by infighting. Political energy and time are being focused at fighting one another rather than establishing themselves as viable alternatives to the ANC and presidential candidates.

ActionSA’s primary policy seems to be unseating the DA, not the ANC. Just look at its waste of political resources in trying to unseat the DA in the Western Cape. Not to mention its sabotage of the DA-led coalition in Johannesburg, and leader Herman Mashaba’s uncalled-for attacks on Helen Zille over eavesdropped possibilities that a DA-ANC coalition may be a distinct possibility under certain strict criteria.

Other parties are not much better. The DA rules its coalitions with more of an iron fist than the silk gloves that managing such a diverse array of politicians requires. Conflicts over petty differences need to stop. It is of paramount  importance that opposition parties get their acts together to become viable successors to the ANC. This means unifying over joint policies, co-ordinating around constituencies to avoid clashes and save resources, ending the bickering, and weeding out the corrupt and incompetent among them.

Doing all of this will help ensure the ANC is not only ousted in 2024, but that the successor is worthy and up to the task. SA is in an extraordinary situation, and it will require extraordinary measures to rectify the damage done over the century-plus of its existence. Not bickering and incompetent coalitions.

• Woode-Smith is a political analyst, historian, fiction author and author of the upcoming “SA: The Unconscious Empire”.