South Africa

This is going to be a rant piece, so if you’re looking for some gentle snark maybe comeback another day (who am I kidding – read on!). There was a time in the late nineties when Somemoungus was an extremely happy man, the NNP – that clique of oppressors and morally bankrupt individuals was slowly but surely going down the toilet. Watching from the sidelines this blogger laughed and cheered as the rats of the NNP climbed over themselves in a desperate effort to escape the SS Kortbroek. With satisfaction I noted the harder they struggled the faster the ship went down….it was a heady sight! For a party that had had total control of SA not 10 years before to be brought down so quickly and so completely was totally…beautiful. I remember happily placing bets on how long they would last and who would be the last fool left tasked with switching off the lights at NP (lets just drop the extra N sham) headquarters. 

But then something inexplicable happened…

The DP, a party with whom I’ve long had a love-hate relationship did one of the stupidest things post democracy politics in SA – it sent over a life raft to allow the rats to escape. Seasoned opportunists, the NP clowns swiftly left their rotting and decrepit home and moved on. Of course an opportunist has no skaam and so quick as a flash they began an in house revolution which the “DA” has tried desperately to hide from the public eye. Even as I write this I guarantee you that this fight is going on between old NP loyalist and DP members – I have seen it with my own eyes on a number of occasions.

What was particularly galling in the whole “alliance” debacle was that it could have been avoided and the DP could have held all the cards at the end of the day. In the short term it may have looked like a good idea for some in the DP who were fixated with getting short-term gains in the polls; however that was all it was - a short-term solution. Scant regard was paid to long term damage.  If the DP had waited the NP would have inevitably fallen apart and then the DP would have been able to set the agenda for those wanting to join from the NP.

“But then we will lose some of those voters and councilors to the ANC”, was a common comment heard at the time, well I’ve got a newsflash to all those preachers - it was gonna happen anyway! What the DP did was it gave the ANC a big thick marker pen which enabled the ANC spin-merchants to brand the DA as a whole as counter-revolutionary and a party for whites. So while the DP may have picked up some votes I believe in the long run they have done some serious damage to their Party brand.

More to come...

Rant over!