By Thapelo Molefe
Higher Education Minister Buti Manamela has challenged the uMkhonto weSizwe Party about how it can govern a constitutional democracy without having a constitution of its own.
“How does a party without a constitution propose to govern a constitutional democracy? Sophistry,” Manamela said, during Tuesday’s response in the National Assembly to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address last week
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Manamela accused MK Party Chief Whip Des Van Rooyen of “dangerous sophistry,” saying the party cannot present itself as a serious alternative to the ANC while struggling with internal stability.
“With MPs coming and going weekly, and with Parliament constantly introducing itself to new MK Party members, how is stability assured?” Manamela asked.
“A party where relatives substitute for one another like royalty, and where Nkandla ensures the batteries remote-control from Nkandla remain charged, cannot present itself as a serious alternative to the ANC.”
The reference to Nkandla was a dig at former President Jacob Zuma, who leads the MK Party from his homestead.
Manamela mocked Van Rooyen’s political history, calling his four-day tenure in 2015 as Finance Minister under Zuma “merely a weekend special,” followed by “a brief one-night stand as MK Party Chief Whip.”
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“The last time former President Zuma gave him a task as Minister of Finance, it was merely a weekend special. Then followed a brief one-night stand as MK Party Chief Whip. Although your opposition politics is about as unreliable as your backhand in tennis, Honourable Van Rooyen, they are still better than those of Judge Hlophe,” the minister said.
“How do you govern a country when you cannot even be a credible opposition?”
He accused Van Rooyen of “discrediting the president’s intent while opposing every practical step taken to realise it, without solutions”.
The minister also took aim at Economic Freedom Fighter’s (EFF) leader Julius Malema, describing him as someone “uncertain whether he wants to kiss or kill the president”.
“This is the nature of politics in South Africa, fluid, dramatic, and occasionally, if one listens to the honourable leader of the EFF, who seems uncertain whether he wants to kiss or kill the President, deeply confusing,” Manamela said.
He emphasised the difference between opposition rhetoric and government action.
“What must not be confusing is the difference between noise and work, between performance and governance, between slogans and solutions, and between sophistry and action,” Manamela said.
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“It is from that standpoint that I rise to support the State of the Nation”.
Defending the Government of National Unity, Manamela criticised the Freedom Front Plus for keeping “one foot in the GNU and another ready to skip when things get difficult,” while praising DA leader and Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen for being useful, dealing with foot-and-mouth disease.
“The GNU is not about competition, but about submitting to the collective responsibility of government,” he said.
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