GARETH VAN ONSELEN: The death of political ideology
Court proceedings and coalitions have helped aid ‘a sort of unofficial constitutional consensus’, amid a crisis of corruption and maladministration
Let’s put aside all the contemporary uncertainty and take a longer view of political life in SA. In 1994, the final election results saw a range of parties represented in the National Assembly, distinctive for their ideological variety. There was the ANC of course (with 62%), a nationalistic organisation with race — particularly the plight of black South Africans — at the heart of its ideological agenda. Next up was the National Party (NP) (with 20.3%), historically the ANC’s nemesis although, likewise, nationalistic in nature. Only, historically, it was white South Africans for whose interests it exclusively advocated. Both stood in 1994 on a non-racial ticket and while the ANC gathered a small number of white voters (mostly left-leaning liberals) and the NP enough Coloured voters to win the Western Cape, by and large the majority of support for each mirrored their traditional demographic bases.The EFF and ANC occasionally exchange personnel. The IFP has fractured and regularly tra...
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