Stop attacking the DA. Work with it to oust the ANC and EFF

Ernest Hemingway, in his 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises, wrote these lines in a conversation between characters. One asks: “How do you go bankrupt?” The other answers: “Gradually and then suddenly.”

This truism applies equally to politics. Over the past 28 years the DA has worked tirelessly to engineer the ANC’s political bankruptcy. I refer to this as the “politics of the long haul”, as we remind ourselves that only sustained hard work in the interests of South Africans will lead to what will seem to be the “sudden” defeat of the ANC.

That victory is closer than ever. There is an emerging societal consensus that the party will not get more than 50% of votes in the 2024 election. If this happens, that year will be the moment the ANC appears to “suddenly” go bankrupt as its hold on politics evaporates.

In truth, there will be nothing “sudden” about the ANC’s fall. When that day comes, it will be thanks in large part to the DA’s painstaking and gradual work over decades.

The moment the ANC goes bankrupt is the one I have spent my entire adult life working towards. But over those many years I have learnt that nothing in politics can be taken for granted. That is why the DA works flat out to achieve its primary 2024 objective: getting more votes so it can pull the ANC as far below 50% as possible.

We are doing this by focusing on battles citizens care about. From load-shedding to the cost of living, abolishing cadre deployment and devolving policing powers, the DA is leading the fight on critical issues facing people. We will continue to do so because we do not take voters for granted.

While debate about the coalition government configuration that follows the ANC’s bankruptcy is important, it will be rendered little more than an academic exercise if opposition parties are so busy fighting each other they forget the purpose of turning the ANC into a minority party.

The only way the ANC can remain above 50% is if it can convince voters opposition coalitions have failed and a continuation of its rule is preferable to their ongoing instability.

ActionSA’s Herman Mashaba helped promote the ANC’s cause in an article in last week’s Sunday Times in which he sought to argue that the DA is trying to form a coalition with the ANC.

On the contrary, even a superficial observer of our political scene knows the DA is working daily to ensure the country’s 23 multiparty coalitions succeed in keeping the ANC out of government. We could have made things easier for ourselves had we been prepared to do deals with the ANC. We are not.

In Nelson Mandela Bay the ruling party is trying to change the system of government to exclude small opposition parties so it and the DA can run a collective executive together. We would hardly oppose it so strongly if we were plotting to enter a coalition with the ANC.

In the run-up to 2024, one thing should worry us more than anything else — the ANC could retain a majority. Fringe opposition parties that spend all their time plotting coalition scenarios instead of fighting for votes will be complicit if the ANC wins. While the DA will participate in the discussion about potential coalition configurations post-2024, it will not allow this to distract from its primary focus of turning the ANC into a minority party.

Unlike other parties, the DA’s approach to a post2024 government is not premised on what would be most politically expedient. The party starts from the principle that it must put the needs of the country above all else. That is why we start by identifying the doomsday scenarios we must avoid.

These are: the ANC gets more than 50%; we sit back and allow an ANC-EFF coalition to take over; or we allow the DA to be sucked into entanglement with the EFF.

As we learnt from Mashaba’s fixation with the EFF while he was mayor of Johannesburg, selling your soul to that party is a fatal mistake. That is also why, despite Mashaba’s constant attempts to smuggle the EFF into our Gauteng coalitions, the DA remains unequivocal that it will, under no circumstances, do deals with the EFF.

If we succeed in avoiding these three scenarios, our subsequent aim will be to work with any partner that shares our core values of nonracialism, a commitment to the rule of law, a social market economy and building a capable state free from cadre deployment. It is obvious the ANC does not meet these requirements, which is why we have refused to work with the party in municipal coalitions.

Through this process of elimination, it is clear the preferred outcome for South Africa is a coalition government in 2024 that commands more than 50% of votes and does not include the ANC or EFF. These coalitions need a strong anchor party. Only the DA is large enough, diverse enough and experienced enough in government to provide this.

This takes me back to my original point: such a coalition will only be possible if opposition parties stop bickering, make their coalitions work and focus on reducing ANC and EFF votes.

If parties such as Mashaba’s continue to spend all their time and energy attacking the DA, they will be the ones responsible if a coalition of opposition parties cannot muster 50% in 2024.

If that should happen, the DA will do what it has always done: fight with everything it has to hold the ANC accountable and keep its hands far away from public money.