Call me a geek. Laugh and point at me scornfully if you need to. I am going to say it anyway: I love the statement of intent that underpins the government of national unity (GNU). First signed by ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula and DA federal council chair Helen Zille in Cape Town on June 14, it is seven pages of unadorned, unshowy dynamite.

The document has a brief, pointed, businesslike preamble. It sets out the scene in just 1½ pages, from 1994 to how we found ourselves, after the May 29 election, in a place where we had to set up a GNU. The preamble ends with a loud, proud, pure reaffirmation and “collective commitment to the founding values of the constitution and to the preamble to the constitution”...

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