LETTER: Power-hungry politicians will decide poll outcome

With polls indicating that the ANC is losing support, many expect the party to need alliance partners to continue governing in just over a year. Author and political analyst RW Johnson makes a good case for why the DA is not a good fit on both economic and policy grounds, and that the ANC is likely to form a coalition government with the EFF.

A list of things the ANC and EFF have in common would include skeletons in their cupboards, leaders facing allegations of criminal activity (VBS, arms deal, Zondo report, Eskom looting, tax evasion), having no investor- or employer-friendly policies and having gullible members who hold up placards demanding an end to corruption, an end to load-shedding and more jobs.

That said, the recent posturing by the EFF and Julius Malema demonstrates that there is bad blood between the EFF and some factions within the ANC, not least those that expelled him. My fear is that the outcome of the general election will be decided by power-hungry politicians.

I was in the UK when the Liberal Democrats were lured into a coalition by seemingly powerful yet actually disempowering positions in government, with policy compromises that sealed their fate. What if the DA convinces itself that this time will be different, or that it must keep the EFF out (say on realpolitik grounds) when this is unlikely to be what any of their right-minded, forward-thinking support base wants?

Greg Becker

Via email

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