On 16th May 2014, South Africa’s 5th democratic parliament
received the list of 400 designated members for the National Assembly as
well as the list of members for the Provincial Legislatures. Having
elected the steering committee and Captain for SS South Africa, the
nation has effectively placed the charting of a new and hopefully
prosperous course through daunting waters in the hands of these 400
individuals over the next 5 years.
With the ruling party comfortably in the majority with 249 of those
400 seats, the question is really “How effective will the opposition be
in keeping checks and balances to the ANC’s rule?”
The official opposition garnered 89 seats, but having been the official
opposition since the 1999 general elections, one begins to wonder if
there is any bite left in the DA bark.
With the arrival of the new kids on the block in the form of the EFF,
I suspect we will suddenly become more enthusiastic and intrigued by
the goings-on within parliamentary walls. For the first time since 1994,
discussions around the water-cooler at offices across the country
centered around the swearing-in of members into parliament. While the
focus may have been around the EFF dress-code, it is undeniable that the
EFF know the right buttons to push to get people talking and to have
the nation once again taking an interest in our countries politics.
With 25 seats to show for their first standing in the general elections,
we would be foolish to write them off as a one-hit wonder. I seriously
doubt that the EFF will follow in the footsteps of Cope, who came onto
the scene with a bang and self-imploded with a fizzle. The EFF have
certainly taken very many lessons from other political parties before
them who may have started with the best of intentions, but allowed
in-fighting and ego’s to be their ultimate downfall.
With the growing number of disgruntled ANC members feeling frustrated
at not having an avenue to channel their frustration, either because
their loyalty won’t allow them to vote for another party or because they
simply choose to abstain from voting, many will now watch with interest
at the questions being posed by the EFF. For many within the ruling
party and even some amongst the official opposition, the EFF has
presented a mouthpiece where once silent dissent was the only option. I
suspect that on a vast array of issues, party politics dictated that
members remain silent even if they held opposing views. I have no doubt
that on issues such as the Arms Deal, HIV Aids and Thabo Mbeki’s recall,
many within the ANC held very strong views which they were afraid to
voice for fear of victimization or simply being left out in the cold by
the majority. The same can be said for the DA. Lindiwe Mazibuko’s exit
and subsequent media statements speaks volumes about the dissatisfaction
within the party. Again I have no doubt that there are very many issues
which polarizes DA members, but ultimately they choose to tow the party
line.
When you’re part of a political behemoth which the ANC undoubtedly is,
it’s easy to have your voice drowned out. Sometimes it takes the little
guy on the outside to make people sit up and listen. Almost a case of
David and Goliath one could imagine.
While many readers may feel that the EFF are nothing more than
racists with no political backbone and too much of personal agendas, one
cannot shy away from the fact that very many of the questions they have
posed speak directly to the heart of their constituency.
Issues surrounding poverty, job creation and nationalization. Issues
surrounding misuse of state funds and corruption. These are issues which
have a direct effect on the masses, and the EFF have been quite
successful in tapping into exactly what the masses want to be tabled and
addressed. The privileged few, the middle class and the employed would
find their utterances to be no more than an annoyance or
counter-productive howling; a fly that needs to be swatted at with
contempt and disgust. The reality is that the issues they speak about
resonate with a much larger and more attentive group; the youth and the
unemployed, the disenfranchised and those scraping the bottom of the
economic trough. When society needs to galvanize opposition to
government policies or simply show dissatisfaction in the form of
marches and strikes, it’s not the privileged few nor the middle-class we
see in the front lines. It’s those fighting for living wages, or any
wage at all. It’s that very demographic that the EFF speaks to. That
demographic is in the majority, whether we accept this as fact or not.
When was the last time you saw a blue-collar middle-income or upper
class individual standing at the front of a march or leading a strike or
doing anything that would qualify him or her as an activist fighting a
cause or standing up against injustice or oppression?
Hitting ‘Like’ on a Facebook cause or commenting on an online article doesn’t count.
The EFF know this.
They also know who their target audience is, and that target audience is getting increasingly hungry and angry.
Hungry and angry.
That’s a combination you never want to see in large numbers.
While you may not agree with many or all of their policies, one would
be naive to think that working together with the EFF to find common
ground and workable solutions and resolutions is an exercise in
futility.
Take the example of what is currently being experienced in much of
Europe. By governments consistently believing that they knew better and
could dictate what was best for the general public, dissent and
dissatisfaction saw the rise in many Right-Wing parties.
One cannot proclaim to be democratic and then balk at the idea of
democracy when it no longer serves your objectives. European parliaments
now face the prospect of having Right-Wing parties with even stronger
right-wing extremist views than they were once comfortable with, now
counted amongst their members. While we watch with interest at the
unfolding of parliamentary events on our doorstep, the world will be
watching with baited breath at the unfolding of events across Europe.
The idea of an EFF ruling party may be too far in the distance to
register on the radar just yet, but the questions they pose certainly
will make the ruling party uncomfortable. That on it’s own will have
achieved the very objective of an opposition party. It’s when parties
who govern believe that they can do so unquestioned and with impunity
that democracy morphes into anarchy.
If nothing else, the EFF will certainly be barking up the right
tree’s and for that reason alone, I for one am glad that we have them in
parliament. I may not want them to rule, but I definitely want them
making things uncomfortable for those within parliament who don’t like
being questioned.
It’s time the ANC realized that parliaments doors are no longer a buffer
between their arrogance and the citizens of this country.
