Pallo Jordan, Business Day
THOUGH it came as no
surprise, I was nevertheless a bit saddened by the announcement this week that
Mamphela Ramphele was leaving politics after being expelled from Agang SA, the
political party she founded. Ramphele was among a generation of young black
intellectuals who came to the fore during the political ice age that descended
on South Africa in the aftermath of the Rivonia trial.
The thaw that came after
they parted ways with the National Union of South African Students owed much to
their youthful courage that rejected both the repressive racism of the National
Party government and patronising liberalism. After establishing the South
African Students Organisation, inspired by black consciousness, they mobilised
students at tertiary institutions established in pursuance of Hendrik
Verwoerd’s grand apartheid, turning many into bastions of the liberation
movement. Ramphele’s personal contribution earned her the wrath of the
apartheid authorities and a deportation order.
When launching her
political platform last year, Ramphele announced that her intervention was to
bring about a realignment of South African politics and to recapture the mood
of optimism that animated the country in 1994. Those of us who recognised in
her launch the voice of a substantial number of people who were alienated from
existing political parties welcomed her initiative as enriching the healthy mix
of political opinions in our institutions. The formal launch of her political
campaign a few months later seemed to indicate that she was earnest.
In an act that betrayed
inexplicable political folly as well as a willingness to front for others,
early this year she accepted nomination as the Democratic Alliance’s (DA’s)
candidate for president. Within a week what had been marketed and appeared to a
be an ardent political love affair ended. The “couple” parted amid bitter
recriminations. Apparently Ramphele had not consulted her party and had made
undertakings she could not honour to DA leader Helen Zille.
After the lacklustre
election campaign it ran, it is difficult to assess the extent of the damage
Ramphele inflicted on her party and her own political credibility by offering
to serve as the DA’s election poster girl. The electorate was clearly
unimpressed and returned only two Agang members to the National Assembly. A
leader whose party fared that badly should usually step aside.
The electorate has
responded rather cautiously to the new parties that came on the scene after
1996. Bantu Holomisa’s United Democratic Movement (UDM) was able to make its
mark in the 1999 elections thanks to powerful regional loyalties and his
charisma. Floor-crossing before the 2004 elections decimated the UDM and it
came to Parliament with its numbers depleted.
The founding of the
Congress of the People (COPE) by those elements of the African National
Congress (ANC) leadership who were dissatisfied with the outcome of the
Polokwane conference was accompanied by excitement in our media. Pundits,
columnists and commentators gleefully announced that an effective challenge to
the ANC had at long last arrived. At first, COPE appeared to perform much
better than the UDM.
But, by the time the date
of the 2009 elections was announced, it was clear that all was not well inside
COPE. It emerged from the elections as the third-largest party in the National
Assembly, then became embroiled in a self-destructive faction fight waged in
the courts. Endless litigation prevented it holding its inaugural conference.
During this year’s elections, the voters punished COPE, returning only three of
its members.
This year’s elections did
realign South Africa’s politics to some degree, but not in the manner Ramphele
had hoped for. Opposition benches that at one time reflected the rich tapestry
of political opinions in this country are today dominated by two parties, the
DA and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). Judged on the basis of
parliamentary representation, South Africa is drifting towards a three-party
system. While the ANC has maintained its dominant position, commanding more
than 60% of the vote, between them, the DA and the EFF have virtually wiped out
the smaller opposition parties. It is the opposition that has been realigned,
in effect reduced to two parties.
The great tragedy of the
Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) was that it was never able to gather and
retain much support beyond a narrow band of African intellectuals. After
initially leavening liberation politics in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the
BCM lost momentum as many of its adherents joined the ANC after 1976.
