SA is at a crossroads and the only way to save one of Africa’s largest and most industrialised economies is to remove the governing ANC from power, opposition party leaders said as the national convention on the moonshot pact officially got under way in Johannesburg Wednesday.
Leaders of the DA, IFP, Independent South African National Civic Organisation (Isanco), Freedom Front Plus (FF+), ActionSA, United Independent Movement (UIM) and the Spectrum National Party (SNP) briefed the media on their expectations before discussions — which are closed to the media — began.
The convention ending on Thursday is being held at Kempton Park’s Emperor’s Palace, the same venue that hosted the Convention for a Democratic SA (Codesa) negotiations.
Independent chair Prof William Gumede said this was a historic moment for SA, as it was one of the few processes in the world “where a pact or coalition agreement is negotiated before an election”.
“The very first thing we are trying to do is to try [to] bring parties together in agreement. It’s extraordinary, because this sort of thing happens after an election. It’s a very exciting process,” Gumede said.
Uniting to change SA’s trajectory
He called on the political parties to rise above “petty squabbles” and take decisions in the best interest of SA, which is dogged by high levels of unemployment, deepening poverty, violent crime, systemic corruption and persistent load-shedding dampening economic growth.
SNP president Christopher Claassen said the convention was a critical moment that will change SA’s political future. “We look forward to finding common ground ... and replace the generally corrupt party [called] the ANC,” Claassen said.
FF+ president Pieter Groenewald said it was not a rare phenomenon that a nation would at one point approach a crossroads. He said 1994 was a historic moment. “Our next crossroads or historical moment is 2024 [and] it won’t be the last one,” Groenewald said. He said no-one would object to the argument that SA was not in a good trajectory and the “only way we can save SA is if we get rid of the ANC government. There is no other way. We will do everything we can to unseat the ANC government,” he said.
IFP president Velenkosini Hlabisa said: “SA is on the verge of becoming a failed state. We believe there is still hope for our country and [the] people of SA. However, if we want things to change, we can’t continue to walk the same path we have been walking. This convention is about SA and its people. It’s not an anti-ruling party club. We don’t hate [the] ANC, we hate what [the] ANC has done to SA.”
UIM president Neil de Beer said: “We are not here to pick a fight or make any party public enemy number one.” The DA has previously characterised the EFF, SA’s third-largest political party, which is not party of the negotiations, as public enemy number one.
De Beer said the upcoming elections would not be about the size of the dog in the fight, but “it’s about the size of the fight in the dog that matters to me”.
Isanco president Zukile Luyenge said the convention “is our 1994 [moment]”. “We have been let down by those whom we regarded to be the most credible and knowledgeable leaders. South Africans have been looking for an alternative ... This is the real Codesa; it will take us far to where SA belongs.”
ActionSA president Herman Mashaba said 44% of South Africans were unemployed, 82 people were murdered each day, a woman was raped every 30 seconds, and load-shedding was destroying livelihoods and jobs.
“It’s all these realities that bring ActionSA into these conversations — to put our differences aside. [The] ANC will lose its majority, all of SA knows this. 91% of South Africans want this project to succeed. We need to attract more parties to build a broad church ... there is no ambiguity about the removal of the ANC [from power],” Mashaba said.
DA federal leader John Steenhuisen said the next two days would not be about politics but “about the people of SA”.
We look forward to finding common ground ... and replace the generally corrupt party [called] the ANC ... We will do everything we can to unseat the ANC government.
— Christopher Claassen, SNP president
“Our country does not have a second to waste. Now is the time for all leaders gathered here to put aside pettiness, ego and the past, so that we can focus on the future,” Steenhuisen said.
He said the upcoming provincial and national elections will be a “hinge of history” moment.
Among other things, the convention will discuss the values and principles that will guide a pact government, rules of engagement during the election campaign, and formulas to form cabinets after the 2024 election.
The DA is rallying opposition political parties around its moonshot pact, which is aimed at unseating the ANC in 2024. Several polls, including one by the ANC itself, suggest the governing party’s electoral support could fall below 50% in the upcoming elections. But none of the opposition parties is strong enough to topple the ANC on its own.
These polls have galvanised SA’s fractious opposition to seriously consider formulating coalitions to defeat the ruling party.
The moonshot pact was necessitated, among other things, by the instability in coalition-run municipalities, which make it difficult to approve budgets and pass council items. There are 81 hung municipalities and metros in SA, with infighting and frequent leadership changes undermining service delivery.
Thus far, coalitions created by opposition parties to run metros in Gqeberha, Tshwane, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni have persistently been rocked by infighting for positions.
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