Johnathan Paoli
BOTH the lead up and the results of the National Dialogue on Coalition Governments have been received with mixed feelings within the political fraternity, from frustrated determination to walk-outs and boycotts.
The national dialogue was organised to find solutions in terms of good governance and stability for South Africa after many years of misrule and corruption and concluded on Saturday after two days of discussions.
During discussions, answering a question by representatives of the DA, Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance Parks Tau said draft legislation concerning coalition partnerships and governance was already underway.
“Developing parallel legislation which borrows extensively from the draft Bills brought by the DA is operating in bad faith. It also makes a mockery of this process which the Deputy President hurriedly put together. The inputs made by political parties in the past two days have been in vain, since the outcome is already decided upon,” said Siviwe Gwarube.
DA Federal Leader, John Steenhuisen, raised concerns over the ANC’s malafide participation in the dialogue as well as dismissing rumours of a DA-ANC deal of excluding smaller parties.
“I’ve already been on the record since April at our conference that we want to build an opposition majority in the country that is going to be able to unseat the ANC, not keep the ANC in power,” Steenhuisen said.
The ATM staged a walkout after disagreements over the proposed minimum threshold arose which the party’s Vuyo Zungula found ridiculous.
“The concept of imposing a threshold for participation in a coalition is nonsensical,” said Zungula.
“We have realised that in these two days, there may be two or three issues where there were disagreements. But most of the issues have a lot of consensus and parties approached in that spirit,” said Deputy President Paul Mashatile
In addition, the Deputy-President of the EFF, Floyd Shivambu, called the coalitions captured, specifically regarding the choice of chair being former public protector Thuli Madonsela as well as Bobby Godsell, a retired South African businessman and as well as being the Non-Executive Chairman of Eskom from 2008 to 2009 and appointed to the National Planning Commission of South Africa by former South African President Jacob Zuma on 30 April 2010.
Godsell’s departure from Eskom in 2009 was under controversial circumstances, caused by a board room struggle with the company’s CEO, Jacob Maroga. Godsell decided to resign while Maroga was later sacked. Godsell found himself accused of racism but was defended by both National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the ANC.
DP Shivambu has called this nothing short of representing the Oppenheimers and White Monopoly Capital, centered on Stellenbosch, in a process with a predetermined outcome.
Shivambu went on to point out that no meaningful coalition can exist without the participation of the EFF, and that the red berets refuse to be “micromanaged by the white capitalist cartels’.
INSIDE POLITICS
