It’s a pressure cooker in our politics and there are some difficult decisions ahead for parties that want to enter into agreements or coalitions with each other.
Those who believe that the balm to our nation’s ills lies in a free and growing economy will, as we have outlined above, want to see a stable government focused on constitutionalism and law and order.
However, voters cannot have their cake and eat it. Such an outcome will require coalition parties to make difficult concessions that will hurt, and that means voters who elected them will need to accept these concessions.
DA voters who support a DA-ANC agreement in the face of appalling alternatives will need to accept that their elected representatives may need to make concessions on topics such as BEE, the international relations stance of the country and the possible presence of individuals in government who were implicated by the Zondo commission.
ANC voters will need to accept the presence of DA heavy hitters in positions of authority historically reserved for ANC people. They may have to concede on topics such as National Health Insurance, cadre deployment and — again — a softer tone in international relations.
Voters have expressed that as a collective we no longer agree on who should govern. Coalition discussions will be hard for the political parties involved generally and the individuals at the sharp end of the negotiations especially.
It is critical that voters, as a consequence of our collective indecision, understand that none of us is going to get our way on everything. By design, this will not be easy.
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