After it was able to muster only about 40% of the votes cast in the May 2024 general election the ANC was obliged to invite other parties represented in parliament to join what it optimistically dubbed a government of national unity (GNU).

The ANC is obviously mindful of the fact that its 40% of seats required the votes of a mere 16% of those eligible to vote due to the large stayaway factor at play in 2024.

The coalition that now calls itself the GNU consists of 10 parties, nine of which responded positively to the president’s invitation extended on behalf of the ANC’s executive. In the invitation it was made clear that the rule of law and the constitution would be the guiding tenets of the GNU. There was no reference of any kind to the “national democratic revolution” (NDR) in the invitation.

That revolution has been the guiding light of the ANC throughout its pre-2024 hegemony at national level in government. The revolution has not delivered and is unlikely to succeed given the new dynamic in SA’s politics, at least in part because none of the parties in the GNU, apart from the ANC, subscribes to the values of the revolution. These are values frequently at odds with the tenets of the constitution, our supreme law.

Once the GNU was safely in place the ANC made it known that the NDR still informs its policymaking and governance style, a style that involves the deployment of loyal cadres of the revolution to all the levers of power. These deployments are effected with a view to securing the desired comprehensive control of all the levers of power in society. In society, mark you, not simply in government.

Whether this ANC manoeuvre can be regarded as a “bait-and-switch” tactic by any party fooled into believing the rule of law and constitution would truly be the lodestar of the GNU, is for those hoodwinked parties to decide.

However, regarding the proposed National Dialogue it would be propitious to place the continuation of the NDR on the agenda to decide once and for all whether it should be abandoned in favour of constitutionalism and adherence to the rule of law.

This step would involve respecting the separation of powers, the independence of the media, the chapter nine institutions and the judiciary, all with the necessary checks and balances on the exercise of power firmly in place.

Voices within the ANC, especially that of the late Kader Asmal, have called for the abandonment of the NDR. Now that the ANC no longer enjoys a majority, the time to do so has surely come.

Governance by NDR-inspired sleight of hand has had its day in SA, and it has done untold harm.

Paul Hoffman
Director, Accountability Now