JUSTICE MALALA | GNU critics are everywhere, ignore opportunity

You will not struggle to find critics of last Friday’s historic agreement to establish a new government of national unity (GNU) in South Africa. They are everywhere.

There are the usual suspects, such as the EFF and the MK Party, who are bleating like bridegrooms abandoned at the altar, though a cursory reading of the agreement makes it clear they are not welcome at the party. As is to be expected, they see nothing positive in the development though they were willing to jump into bed with the devil that they now paint the ANC as.

Then there are the genuine critics, those who look at the parties in the GNU and shake their heads and ask, can you really herd these cats? Even those of us who see hope in the document are asking ourselves if there is enough patience, humility and appreciation of how hard it will be to make a GNU work among the political egos we have around the Union Buildings.

Yet, don’t rush to pessimism or despair that this experiment will be stillborn or that it will fail. There is a popular saying attributed to the wartime British Prime Minister Winston Churchill: “The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

There is opportunity in the statement of intent released by the parties on Friday. There is hope. Our country needs to roll with it, to aim for the light instead of the dark, to reach for the dream instead of continuing to live with the nightmare of crime, poverty, inequality and rampant unemployment.

Friday’s agreement is a document that is an indictment of the ANC, for these are the principles crafted by its leaders and enshrined in our constitution in the 1990s. If there is anything that illustrates the ANC’s loss of direction and failure, it is that it must now be lectured and tied into agreements by the DA to implement what is abundant in many of its own documents

It’s not often I find myself excited by a political document. They are usually dry, turgid, unimaginative, workmanlike. Yet I believe we should be sending out Friday’s seven-page agreement to schools and universities and asking teachers and students to read it. Those first three pages are magnificent in that they again underline and recommit the signatories to our values and our principles as enshrined in our constitution.

It has become fashionable nowadays to bash the constitution, to blame it for every failure of the state these past few decades and to call for it to be replaced. You hear these calls from the likes of Lindiwe Sisulu, the former minister of several portfolios who made little or no impact in any of them, and from the crowd around MK Party leader Jacob Zuma.

Well, it is absolutely moving to read, in clause seven of this document, this ringing line: “The parties reaffirm our collective commitment to the founding values of the constitution and to the preamble to the constitution...”

One of my criticisms of President Cyril Ramaphosa and his administration has been they don’t do enough to speak up for and defend the constitution. Well, they do it in spades in this document.

The foundational principles of the GNU echo those of our constitution and illustrate why the MK Party’s Zuma and EFF’s Julius Malema would have been glaringly at odds in any arrangement that puts people or country at the centre of things. It states boldly that all parties to the GNU must “respect the constitution, the Bill of Rights in its entirety, a united South Africa and the rule of law”.

You would think it would be easy for anyone to commit to that, but as we know, Zuma and the rule of law don’t mix, while the constitution and the Bill of Rights are a red rag to the EFF. Friday’s agreement is a document that is an indictment of the ANC, for these are the principles crafted by its leaders and enshrined in our constitution in the 1990s. If there is anything that illustrates the ANC’s loss of direction and failure, it is that it must now be lectured and tied into agreements by the DA to implement what is abundant in many of its own documents.

The principles section of Friday’s statement of intent is the most powerful and moving. In a sparse 10 lines it reminds us of who we are and what we stand for as a country. It is good to see men and women elected by the people recommit to these principles of nonracialism and nonsexism. It is good to hear them recommit to social justice, redress and equity, the alleviation of poverty, to accountability in government and so much more that drives a people-centred society towards prosperity.

Tomorrow I shall criticise. Tomorrow I shall be cross about our politicians’ failures. But today I celebrate this document, this agreement, because it repeats and underlines so much that is good and progressive and hopeful about this great nation of ours. We deserve a better future and maybe we have a chance with this document or at least a chance of stepping forward just a little bit.