Only Three Real Parties in Contention
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18 OPINION SUNDAY TRIBUNE JULY 17 2016 SUNDAY Only three real parties in contention TRIBUNE HERE are really only three could be in for an interesting election. of the Tea Party. But they have now But the EFF’s solutions to our parties in this election. The Some have suggested a DA and EFF MY created a situation in which they have crisis often come straight from the TNational Freedom Party has self- coalition could conceivably threaten a candidate who is not electable. unreconstructured Stalinism of the destructed, the United Democratic the ANC in Joburg. View The EFF has put itself in a SACP. Eskom is a disaster. The SABC Progress in Movement, Minority Front and IFP are The EFF is a relatively small party similar situation. It has encouraged is a disaster. SAA is a disaster. We all of minor regional interest, Cope and in terms of the number of seats it buffoonery and cheap populism to know this, and yet the EFF continues Agang are a mess and the parties of the holds in Parliament. Its support on garner media attention and create a to speak as if nationalisation is a far left – the Socialist Party of Azania, the ground is relatively minor. Imraan stir. It worked very well. panacea that will magically resolve Aids battle the PAC, the Workers and Socialist But it is a huge party in terms of But every time Malema makes the all our problems and create work and Party, Azapo and abortive United Front media savvy, and media attention it Buccus kind of outrageous comment that wealth for all. – are all irrelevant. wins. Again and again the EFF has pushes more reasonable voices out of Of course Malema’s gift for O ONE can say just when a pri- The real players are the ANC, the leveraged massive media attention supporter of Robert Mugabe. the limelight, he makes it harder for spin and spectacle have won the DA and the EFF. from minor support. Of course he was wise enough to the public to consider him a serious party a real base, while the narrow mate version of the immunodefi- We all know the ANC will take the But the party’s major media asset, jump ship when the tide of popular contender for public office. dogmatism of parties like Sopa Nciency virus entered the human vast majority of the votes. Julius Malema, is also its major opinion turned against Zuma, the Playing the role of a and Wasp have consigned them to bloodstream and mutated into HIV. There are three big questions in liability. This is a contradiction that tenderpreneurs and now Mugabe. Shakespearean fool is one thing. permanent irrelevance. Some claim it happened as far back as this election. The first is how much cannot easily be resolved. He’s certainly a canny operator. Assuming the gravitas of the king is Populism is a far better electoral a century ago. But what we do know is the ongoing Zuma debacle will cost Malema’s bombastic personality But he’s also an opportunist of the another. Malema has typecast himself prospect than narrow dogmatism. the ANC. The second is whether the and quick wit mean he can turn worst kind and opportunism always as the fool. But it needs to be accompanied by the that it has affected millions of people and DA will take Port Elizabeth and, as almost any situation to his short- has real politics costs in the long run. Like the Shakespearean fool, sort of serious political work that can there is still no cure. some pundits have suggested, perhaps term advantage in winning media It is true that Donald Trump, Malema often says things that are true articulate popular aspiration to viable This week, the world’s experts gather Pretoria too. attention. But while the public enjoys a buffoon who delights in making and which others don’t dare to say. political strategies for change. in Durban for the 21st International Aids The third big question is how the spectacle, they are not fools. outrageous statements, astounded This is not just entertaining. It is also • Buccus is senior research Conference – the second time such a well the EFF will do. If many ANC We all remember that Malema the world by winning the Republican sometimes valuable. associate at ASRI, research fellow at supporters, appalled at the moral was once Jacob Zuma’s most militant nomination in the US. When Malema criticises Zuma the UKZN School of Social Sciences get-together has been held in Africa. collapse of a once-great movement, supporter. We all remember he was The Republican Party created this or points out that we have not yet and academic director of a university The first, 16 years ago, was clouded stay at home, and the DA and EFF are a tenderpreneur and tax doger. We mess for themselves by pandering resolved the land question, he is study abroad programme on political by controversy. Former president Thabo able to energise their supporters, we all remember he was an enthusiastic to right-wing populism in the form saying things we all agree with. transformation. Mbeki upset delegates by refusing to accept the prevailing scientific opinion that HIV caused Aids. Today the political will exists to fight the pandemic and South Africa has the TONGUE world’s largest population on antiretro- & viral drugs – about 3.4 million people. The result is that HIV/Aids is no long- CHEEK er a death sentence. Many of those on treatment live normal lives. The future looks promising with a Dennis UN plan to eliminate Aids by 2030. This Pather involves treating those living with HIV/ Aids with drugs. There is also a possibil- ity that a vaccine will be developed, per- haps even developed in KwaZulu-Natal. Browned These gains result from the persever- ance of many men and women who, for decades, have waged a battle against off by HIV/Aids. Many of them are at the Durban conference. We thank them for their efforts and wish them well. Indian label F I LOOK befuddled now, it’s Au revoir, AU! because I can’t tell whether I’m Isupposed to be flattered, frustrated or flabbergasted by all the fuss being KOSAZANA Dlamini-Zuma will made over my vote on August 3. 0 Because I happen to be of Indian use this weekend’s African Union descent, I’ve suddenly become Nsummit in Kigali, Rwanda, to say the flavour of the month. Hardly farewell to the continental body. a day passes without a flurry of She was appointed to chair the AU phone calls, flyers and e-mails from Commission in 2012 and her four-year political parties ranging from the mighty electoral machines to the term ends this month. Mickey Mouse outfits that have Dlamini-Zuma had the option of stand- sprung up like mushrooms. ing for a second term but chose not to do Many of these election so. It is possible she believed her work at canvassers seem to have an the AU was done, or she has presidential obsession with my race, and insist on reminding me of my special ambitions in South Africa. status as a very important minority. The timing of her return home is per- They tell me that, as an Indian, fect, coming before the ANC’s nation- I am a member of a marginalised al general council next year, when the minority, sandwiched between party’s next president will be chosen. the numerically powerful black community and economically Dlamini-Zuma has a lot going for her. influential whites. In such She is respected within the ANC and circumstances, my future in the her time at the AU prevented her from country is precariously uncertain. being embroiled in factionalism. Since And that’s where they come in. 1994, she has served in government – in Because they understand the Stadium politics precursor to poll disputes Indian community so well and health, foreign affairs and home affairs. have my welfare at heart, the With Theresa May taking over in the political party they represent is UK and Hillary Clinton a strong con- HERE is a new concept in town: will pitch up. best positioned to safeguard my tender for the White House, Dlamini- stadiumology. It is not the study MY It could well be that, as an interests in a future South Africa. Zuma could become South Africa’s first Tof stadiums, as would appear, but undecided voter, I have just decided What balderdash. The more I some political art, if it is indeed an art. to pitch at an election rally to make thought about their sales pitch, woman president. View It is a way in which political up my mind about political choices I the more I remembered having parties flex their muscles by showing have at my disposal. heard this line before. Remember off their support base. But it is worse when the SABC when the Nats were trapped in the One way of doing this is to fill Lesiba decides that it wants to show a same ideological mindset under a big stadium with party loyalists, It is a dark era in particular party only when its apartheid a few decades ago? then invite the media to capture the Seshoka which judgment stadium is full and another only When they swept into power in moment. will be made on the when its is empty. 1948, they did so under the slogan: TRIBUNE TEAM The practice of filling stadiums It shows the level and era of “The k***** in his place and the has become part of South Africa‘s argue, they are not free to meet the basis of a stadium mediocrity we are in.