MARIANNE MERTEN: SA’s defining moment: political one-upmanship or coalition governance
Compromising for the national interest is the real test of the GNU
When Anglican archbishop Thabo Makgoba talked in his Easter sermon of the “grandstanding and political one-upmanship” of SA’s politicians, he also warned of a “a crisis of confidence” in democratic governance.
This caution has come at a key moment given recent rumbling of a reset of the government of national unity (GNU) amid ongoing budget high jinks. The point is that the credibility of the budget, one of SA’s internationally acknowledged strengths, was damaged when on February 19 its tabling was delayed by that SA tendency — the political solution. Finding the political solution is a short-term, issue-linked, often artless deal that undermines governance principle and damages SA’s body politic...
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