On December 15th, 2021, six South African opposition political parties announced a grand coalition at municipal level. The development has gone almost totally unnoticed by the public, in no small part owing to the virtual mainstream media blackout of this news story. For the better part of the past two years an endless cavalcade of analysists who cover south Africa have argued that coalitions are the future of South African politics. Perhaps coalitions may be, but few of those analysts bother to delve into the challenges and failures of coalition governments historically or contemporaneously. While coalitions at municipal level can work, the few examples we have in South Africa after the 2016 elections have been far from impressive or successful (Nelson Mandela Bay, Johannesburg, Tshwane).
#SouthAfrica's #ANC held a 100 day celebration of the Govt of National Unity (#GNU) on 14 Oct 2024.
Congrats to the ANC on cobbling together a coalition. But ist does seem odd that the ANC invited the communists (#SCAP) to the party, but not any of the GNU partners.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (#EFF) self-styled Commander-in-Chief, Julius #Malema peddles fiction about South Africa's 1.3M Indians. Such nonsense must be called out at every turn.
In this documentary, #Karou #Charou and I visited his home town #Chatsworth (outside #Durban). Enjoy the conversation.
