Our budget has become a political football, and the economy Donald Trump’s punching bag. For a country perpetually teetering on the edge, this should feel familiar. Crisis is our comfort zone.
At a time that vision and maturity are being demanded, our leaders have defaulted to petty squabbles. Parliament is a theatre of the absurd, where the absence of leadership is rivalled only by the lack of any sense of the bigger picture. South Africa’s major political parties have embraced a zero-sum, winner-takes-all mentality — and they’ve done so at the worst possible moment.
Trump 2.0 is not just a political rerun in the US. It’s a direct economic threat to fragile markets like ours. His crude protectionism isn’t a joke. It’s a scalpel — and it’s already cutting deep. New tariffs will hammer South African exports, particularly the automotive sector, and expose the utter lack of preparedness by our so-called leadership class.
Youth unemployment is hovering near 60%. In places like East London, these tariffs are not theoretical. They are existential. East London was once famous for producing world-class boxers — now it’s clinging to relevance through left-hand-drive C-Class Mercedes-Benz vehicles built for the US market. A 30% tariff on those cars isn’t a policy tweak, it’s a death blow.
Mercedes-Benz is the largest private-sector employer in East London — in a province where government jobs remain the only cushy career option for many. If Merc pulls back, the economic fallout will be swift and devastating. East London is about to become the poster child for Trump’s economic vandalism. It’s the kind of scenario that makes it clear: American nationalism may eventually hurt the US but it will ruin us first.
And how do our politicians respond? They squabble over the budget like it’s the heart of the problem. They waste time fighting over decimal points, blind to the global freight train heading straight for our economy. Redefining our trade relationships away from the US is a mammoth task — and our leaders speak of it as though it is a matter of flipping a switch.
Sure, we can pivot to China, the EU and “the rest of Africa” — but let’s not kid ourselves. Uganda and Ethiopia aren’t about to absorb our platinum or our luxury vehicles. They already buy what they can from our fruit baskets. The notion that the continent will suddenly fill America’s economic shoes is a comforting fantasy.
And so, this week, we watched the ANC and the DA — the anchor tenants of the coalition government — behave as though they’ve just learnt how not to govern. Their actions are a masterclass in betrayal: betrayal of voters, of good faith, and of the moment. They dressed up the government of national unity as a noble cause, a unity vehicle to drive prosperity. Instead, it’s turning out to be a pay-as-you-go arrangement to manage self-interest in a paralysed state.
This is the moment when President Cyril Ramaphosa should be gathering a tight war-room of coalition ministers — not to squabble, but to respond
The DA, for its part, has boxed itself in by adopting a hardline stance in budget talks. Its opposition to a modest VAT increase isn’t about the budget’s content — it’s a symptom of its frustration with being a junior partner in a coalition it doesn’t quite control. Meanwhile, it caves to the ANC on major legislation: the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill, the Expropriation Bill, and National Health Insurance. The party is losing where it matters and flexing muscles where it doesn’t.
And then there’s the ANC. The ANC will always be the ANC. It may be fractured and fatigued but let the DA trip over itself and it will rally fast — not out of strategy, but out of instinct. If it forces the DA out of the GNU, it will be a pyrrhic victory. The ANC is still in no state to govern, still allergic to introspection, and still blind to the social disconnect that dragged it down to 40% support. Cheap wins won’t stop its electoral haemorrhage.
What’s required is adult leadership. Leadership that realises the stakes. Leadership that puts the country above factional point-scoring. This is the moment when President Cyril Ramaphosa should be gathering a tight war-room of coalition ministers — not to squabble, but to respond.
The question is clear: how do we open new markets, support local manufacturers and protect jobs in the face of economic nationalism abroad? Instead, what we’re hearing is gossip — about who has Herman Mashaba or Gayton McKenzie in their corner.
This is no time for such nonsense. The window to act is narrowing. South Africa does not need coalition management. It needs leadership — real, grown-up leadership — and it needs it now.
• Mkokeli is lead partner at public affairs consultancy Mkokeli Advisory
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