South Africa’s opposition parties, which kowtow to the ruling party, have only themselves to blame ”if the deadening hand of a de facto one-party state threatens” to encircle the country, says official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA)leader Tony Leon.
In his regular Friday online column, SA Today, the DA leader said despite boycotts by taxis in Cape Town, the march on Thursday involving his party and an array of smaller parties in the multiparty city government — to protest against African National Congress (ANC) attempts to change the form of city government — had been a ”rousing event” celebrating a diverse range of cultural, religious and racial interests.
He was referring to mayor Helen Zille’s march to the office of provincial minister of local government and housing Richard Dyantyi to protest against his proposed change of the executive mayoral system. She was joined by the leaders of six smaller parties in the coalition.
Leon slammed Patricia de Lille’s Independent Democrats, in particular, as a party that kowtowed to government: ”One such party in particular has earned the universal scorn of voters — including, spectacularly, its own — by undermining the cause of opposition and advancing the ANC’s interests at every opportunity.”
”The so-called Independent Democrats [ID] gained a mandate at the polls to oppose the ANC. Yet ever since the municipal elections in March this year, this outfit of serial policy flip-floppers has made a virtue out of one consistency only: it has connived with the ruling party in its ceaseless campaign to unseat the DA-led multiparty coalition.
”This week, the ID and the ANC — hand in glove as usual — walked out of the Cape Town City council’s monthly meeting on Wednesday, thus preventing — momentarily — the multiparty administration from raising a quorum in its critical struggle with the ruling party.”
Meanwhile, the ANC, he said, was not content just to sabotage the popular will in Cape Town and had embarked ”on a malicious ploy to do away with a title entrenched in the Constitution: Leader of the Opposition”.
”The practice of so designating the head of the largest political formation not in government is, of course, a staple of democracies worldwide.”
Leon turned his attention to Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder, whose party is part of the DA-led coalition in Cape Town and which participated in the Thursday march. He noted that he had been reported to be leading ”this pointless move to erase this designation from the Constitution”.
”Actually, the ANC — ever ready to exploit differences between the opposition — are behind this mean-spirited action.” But he said by seeking to expunge the title, the ANC one again exposes its contempt for democracy.
”It is a pity that Mulder, seeking to ingratiate his organisation with the ruling party, fails to grasp this point.” — I-Net Bridge