Why?

What is your opinion on the state of our Nation? It is time WE start talking about and creating the country that we live in and love. Let's start discussing our country from our point of view, the people who live here


Thursday, May 30, 2013

Who is setting the political tone in South Africa?

One of my frustrations in the political landscape of South Africa has been that the main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), has been battling for a platform to talk about their policies and successes, and when they did get their chance, all they did was to criticise the ruling African National Congress (ANC), rather than talk about themselves. This was not healthy for democracy in our country. However, if you have been paying attention to the political scene you would have noticed something very interesting: in the last year or so the DA has been driving the political merry-go-round. They have been incredibly aggressive in their drive to get their policies into the public domain and to create their own future for the party. While they endeavoured to get their message out, they never had the platform to spread the word. The ANC has proved to be an unlikely source of the biggest possible platform for the DA. Recently, The DA’s ‘Know your DA’ campaign has got the most airplay from high-ranking ANC politicians, and this has given the DA a huge platform to respond, and talk of their history. Furthermore, the ANC visited Midvaal, the only opposition run municipality in Gauteng, and made all sorts of outlandish accusations against the DA; the DA was given a platform to respond and share the truth that Midvaal is the best run municipality in Gauteng. Finally, the ANC has called on Barack Obama to refuse the key to the city that will be given to him when he visits Cape Town, citing that the DA does not care for the poor. All this has done is led to the DA being given a platform to share how they provide more for the poor than any city run by the ANC. Add to that the fact that The ANC do not seem able to move past a continuous stream of scandals and you have a situation where the DA is the party that is dictating the political tone and the ANC is on a continuous backpedal. Exciting times lay ahead for democracy in South Africa