Although many seem sceptical of DA leader Helen Zille's call for the amalgamation of like-minded parties into a single and new opposition party, they all agree that cooperation would make the opposition more effective.

But even the most optimistic of analysts would also agree that such unity is not likely to cause a major dent to the ANC's huge electoral support.

Although the 65.9% of the vote that the ruling party received during the 2009 general elections is likely to be reduced in 2014, existing opposition parties are unlikely to collectively garner enough votes to oust the ANC from power.

Even if they were all to be collapsed into a single entity, they would be extremely fortunate to increase their share of the vote to more than 40%.

Over the past few elections, only the DA has shown growth potential while many other opposition parties have been in decline.

The most optimistic predictions about the DA's performance in the 2014 general elections is that the party would almost double its electoral base to about 30%.

Although the Congress of the People - which broke away from the ANC less than a year before elections - got an impressive 1million votes in 2009 (7.42% of the overall votes), nothing suggests that Mosiuoa Lekota's party will make any improvement in 2014.

In fact, many of those who voted for COPE in 2009 are so disappointed by its poor performance in parliament, as well as the endless in-fighting between its leaders, that they are not likely to be "duped" again in two years' time.

But with the ANC set to retain its president, Jacob Zuma, as its leader in Mangaung, these voters are not likely to have a "khumbul'ekhaya [missing home] moment" and back the ANC.

Some of them will cast their votes for the DA - but many more will be without a political home.

These disgruntled COPE voters, as well as scores of others who gave the ANC the benefit of the doubt in 2009 but are now fed up with the party, are an electoral constituency that can be best served by a completely new political party.

They may be appreciative of the opposition role Zille and her party are playing inside and outside of parliament, but the party's history and ideological orientation remains a major turn-off for them.

So, if not the DA, where can these mainly black and middle-class voters go? Who can best represent their voice?

In recent months, we have seen a growing number of prominent South Africans who are not directly linked to any political party speaking out against the political direction they believe the country to be taking.

Many of them have written opinion pieces in national newspapers bemoaning what they perceive to be the lack of leadership in the country.

The likes of Mamphela Ramphele, Barney Pityana, Moeletsi Mbeki and businessman Oyama Mabandla are but a few of those who have spoken out on a need for change.

But is it not time for these civil society leaders and intellectuals to convert their lament into political action?

Shouldn't they be forming a political party that would present itself as an alternative to the ruling party - a new party that is not tainted, like a number of the existing parties, by past associations or cooperation with the apartheid state?

It is no use complaining about Zuma and his party "not showing leadership" when there is no one willing to step up and show South Africans how it all should be done.

The majority of voters are often accused of casting "loyalty votes" for the ANC because they allegedly only back the party for its "struggle credentials" rather than its track record in government.

What critics never focus on is the quality of the alternative parties available and whether they have the kind of messages that can win over traditional ANC voters.

The individuals mentioned above have the necessary "struggle credentials" and, since they have never been part of the post-apartheid government, are not tainted by recent history.

Let them form a new political party and take their ideas of how to fix the country to the electorate for support.

They may not end up forming a new government by 2014, but they may help to truly reconfigure the country's political establishment for the first time since 1994.