Not a single party has demonstrated loyalty to the interests of our citizens
22 November 2021 - 17:37
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General election campaign posters are displayed on the road side in Pretoria in this April 18 2019 file photo. Picture: BLOOMBERG via GETTY IMAGES/WALDO SWIEGERS
It is becoming increasingly obvious that not one of our greater or lesser relevant political parties (the ANC, DA, EFF, FF+, IFP and possibly ActionSA) has the remotest chance on their own to glue together our fractured and fatigued society. Nor to govern by themselves in a way that restores an economically strong constitutional democracy to our country with the implementation of the rule of law and provision of an acceptable level of human dignity to so many of our deprived citizens.
If a political centre does not emerge soon with the capability of relegating the extreme left and right to irrelevant minority corners and holding the centre stage with an honest, committed, all-inclusive government, our country will continue to deteriorate and degenerate into a failed state.
Only a government of national unity can successfully occupy that stage, but that requires the current leading actors to put aside their trivial personality issues, their fixation on the prominence of their own parties, themselves and their cadres, and a focus on starting the process of creating that government of national unity.
But the coalition negotiations between parties has revealed that they are guided by self-importance, greed, pride, arrogance and self-interest. Not one of them has demonstrated loyalty to the interests of our citizens.
There can be no progress towards fixing the chaotic shambles our country is in, and no reversal of our dwindling wellbeing, without the centre emerging and holding. In particular, in their attitude towards local government coalitions the ANC and DA seem blindly oblivious to this. They show no inclination towards building the centre that is so desperately needed now. They have to be the pillars of that centre.
For those parties hoping for some miraculous victory in 2024, it is like waiting for Godot — self-delusionary, simply fiddling and posturing while our country burns.
David Gant, Kenilworth
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
LETTER: Only a unified centre party can save SA
Not a single party has demonstrated loyalty to the interests of our citizens
It is becoming increasingly obvious that not one of our greater or lesser relevant political parties (the ANC, DA, EFF, FF+, IFP and possibly ActionSA) has the remotest chance on their own to glue together our fractured and fatigued society. Nor to govern by themselves in a way that restores an economically strong constitutional democracy to our country with the implementation of the rule of law and provision of an acceptable level of human dignity to so many of our deprived citizens.
If a political centre does not emerge soon with the capability of relegating the extreme left and right to irrelevant minority corners and holding the centre stage with an honest, committed, all-inclusive government, our country will continue to deteriorate and degenerate into a failed state.
Only a government of national unity can successfully occupy that stage, but that requires the current leading actors to put aside their trivial personality issues, their fixation on the prominence of their own parties, themselves and their cadres, and a focus on starting the process of creating that government of national unity.
But the coalition negotiations between parties has revealed that they are guided by self-importance, greed, pride, arrogance and self-interest. Not one of them has demonstrated loyalty to the interests of our citizens.
There can be no progress towards fixing the chaotic shambles our country is in, and no reversal of our dwindling wellbeing, without the centre emerging and holding. In particular, in their attitude towards local government coalitions the ANC and DA seem blindly oblivious to this. They show no inclination towards building the centre that is so desperately needed now. They have to be the pillars of that centre.
For those parties hoping for some miraculous victory in 2024, it is like waiting for Godot — self-delusionary, simply fiddling and posturing while our country burns.
David Gant, Kenilworth
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
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