History Favours A DA/ANC Coalition

The extent to which politics makes strange bedfellows is colouring the scenario of a coalition between the ANC and the DA. Yet historically, that need not be the case.

The founders of the ANC in 1912 were moderate, middle-class Africans who sought a better deal for the African population, from which they were excluded by the newly established government of the Union of South Africa.

It was only decades later by 1947 that the ANC had become a captive of the SA Communist Party, when seven members of its Executive committee were communists and included Joe Slovo and Bram Fischer. From that point, the original moderate objectives of the ANC were replaced by communist ideology, as reflected in the Freedom Charter drafted by, inter alia, Slovo, Ben Turok, and Ruth First.

History rotates in cycles. With the likes of Cosatu and the Gucci communist parasites within the ANC who are implacably opposed to a coalition with the DA, history confronts the ANC: to return to its original, reputable roots or be irrevocably absorbed into the ranks of the MKP and EFF Marxist radicals.

Over the years the ANC has shed many skins: the PAC, the IFP, Cope, the EFF, the MKP. But now, 30 years on, it is time to recalibrate policies so as to reverse the failure of socialism, which has betrayed the intentions of the ANC’s founders and impoverished the masses.

By returning to the responsible stance of its founders and ditching its Marxist leash, the obstacles to a coalition with the DA would be greatly reduced. A coalition with the DA can help to bring that about and get the aims of the ANC’s founders back on track.

ANC stalwart Cheryl Carolus provides a sage and sanguine outlook when she remarks that as the two biggest parties, the ANC and DA “have a responsibility to lead us” (The Mercury, June 6).

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