The ANC’s loss of
absolute power to govern has necessitated its transition into a coalition
government mode. This loss carries significant implications, representing a substantial
territorial gain for the opposition complex on all fronts. Despite the 40%
performance of the ANC at the polls being derived from a low voter turnout base,
it remains the majority party, albeit below the absolute power threshold. The
political power situation the ANC faces is markedly different from previous episodes; it must now share its remaining power with those seeking to claim
it.
Following the May 2024 elections, in which all political parties performed below 50%, RSA political leaders agreed
that a coalition government arrangement would ensure the stability of the
democratic order. This decision marked a monumental shift in the political
power structure of South Africa. The opposition complex, previously occupied by
parties to the right of the ANC, now sees the MK Party, with its ambitious
leftist posture, as the official opposition. This new state of affairs appears
to have favoured the liberal order cohorts of the dominant political formations
in RSA.
In hegemonic terms, the
liberal right and the right increased their influence by sustaining the ANC
into political power to the extent that it pursues economic policies that are
friendly to entrenching the private sector as the power node with which the economic
authority of the Republic vests. In turn, the ANC leadership focused on growth
and eased its domestic political capital and social control by opening the
economy to foreign investment and ideas through the GNU bait. The current GNU
power configurations are mutually beneficial in terms of state-business trust
deficit reduction. This notwithstanding the hegemonic costs to ANC and DA
as sufficient consensus-determining partners in the GNU arrangements.
The fundamental policy
issues of the NHI, the BELA Act, and the privatisation or unbundling of
SOEs in network industries demonstrate deep fissures in the GNU. The resultant
tension on policy issues might be a contestation space characterised by the
concealment of the ANC and DA's desire to hegemonically prevail as GNU
partners. The transformation of RSA society requires a persistent sensitivity
to reciprocal recognition by GNU partners of their core constituency's
lived experience and a tormented or advantaged past.
The brute truth is that the
GNU, left to finish its term of office, will redefine the character of whoever
governs. Those going to a hegemonic space will ideologically alter the
orientation of the state towards government. Parties that have modelled
themselves as perpetually anti one policy or another or anti-the system will
soon be relegated to their comfort zone, opposing the system. Political power
begins with embracing the system that embodies the power of enforcement and
the coercive force of the institutions that direct the power.
While the ANC may view
the GNU as a tactical move, it should also recognize it as a significant
power terrain reconfiguration in RSA. As a liberation movement, the ANC's actions
and decisions are crucial in shaping the future of South African politics. Its
political legitimacy capital sustains its relevance, and it must be mindful of
the lessons from other countries with a similar post-conflict trajectory.
In any case, the vision of a stable constitutional and democratic order, a predominantly but not completely bifurcated political system of governance and development, led by two politically advanced ideological or otherwise power blocs hegemonically competing head-to-head, seems like the most likely replacement for the absolute majority party must govern system that dominated South Africa over the past three decades. The historic liberalism ties between the ANC and DA won’t be severed. However, given the inevitable fragmentation of the non-liberalism embracing sections of the RSA political spectrum, less symbiosis and more sclerosis will ensue as the liberal order competition for dominance heats up.
Fortunately for the ANC,
it can reverse the tide of being ideologically swallowed, and not because
claimants of the liberal ideological space are sophisticated, but purely
because it can't proffer a succinct ideological alternative; the creation of a
national democratic society provides a safe sieve to pursue something other
than being overtly liberalist. What oxygen is to lungs, political hegemony is
to the GNU. Those outside it might point faults at it, but few have been able
to show the alternative to it, save their inclusion. Suppose the ultimate
consensus is that it should be about creating a national democratic society,
then the current Constitution, save for the property clause discontents, is the
legal framework. CUT!!!
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