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185 28 Doing South Africa ormer Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo who led the Africa alliance observer’s mission in KZN (KwaZulu Natal) province in the last general elections, in 2009, declared the election as free and fair. He also gave sage wisdom to president Zuma, saying that he was now the president of the whole country, that he was like rain, and like rain which doesn’t choose which fields to rain in, that he should rain in every field in the country, whether sinners, whether saints. I will add, whether White, Coloured, Asian, or Black. The sad thing to draw from this sage advice is that African countries always learn about this at the last moment when things cannot be reversed anymore. Most, If not all, African countries have made this same mistake, one after another. It is painful and galling to notice that the last hope of Africa (South Africa) seems to be on the same track. I have been able to stay for over two years in South Africa. It has afforded me the opportunity to observe South Africa so that whatever I will articulate in this essay is not necessarily armchair understanding, of the issues. I want to think that South Africa’s biggest problem, like all the other African countries before it, is its failure to develop an alternative opposition party for the electorate to vote for. In the election of 2009, ANC still got over 60per cent of the vote, and all the other parties had to share the less than 40per cent of vote, with the DA( Democratic Alliance) getting a significant 24per cent of the vote. The DA is a vibrant opposition party and it could be an alternative for the electorate, barring one huge problem, that is, it is still viewed as a white supremacist party by the majority blacks. The majority blacks don’t simply trust it. At one time there was a great vibe when COPE (Congress of People) came before the elections but it only garnered 8per cent of the vote, despite the fact that it had former ANC heavyweights like Lekota and Shilowa. It is now dying F 186 the same death of the UDM, ID, IFP parties, with infighting over positions being the biggest problem, of its death. The sad reality is there is no party that can be able to unseat the ANC in the coming 23 election periods. That’s the biggest threat to South Africa’s young democracy, to have the ANC ruling the country for another 10 years, especially looking at what it is doing right now. This lack of an alternative opposition party, this lack of an opposition (credible party) has resulted in the ANC parliamentarians’ rubber stamping the ANC policies without much analysis or criticisms in the parliament. Ultimately, poor policies or decisions from the party have been implemented. Ralph Heintzman, a distinguished Canadian writer and academic said one of the most important feature of the parliament, is its deep symbolic value as the citadel of dialogue and civilised debate, noting. “The daily confrontation and “loyal’ opposition in the House of commons (the parliament) symbolises the inner dialogue, the continual sequence of question and answer, which distinguishes the truly civilised mind and is reflected in the social and public life of a civil community. Just like a genuinely sound mind does not suppress either of its two fundamental impulses but instead listens to both, and tries unceasingly to achieve a synthesis in which their opposition will be reconciled, so too, the good society recognises the opposing tendencies are not each other’s enemies but each other’s partners instead, and their indispensable component. They are linked in an educational contract which is at once the condition and sign of civilisation.” This is what is lacking in South Africa’s young democracy. A credible parliament and a credible opposition party such that South Africa’s parliament doesn’t provide a platform and forum in which points of view can be argued and in which through constant battle of opposing views and ideas, they could hope to find the truth. A sound parliament would be the source of effective social affiliation, can yield a sense of security, and an index of the citizen’s happiness. By definition a majority of anything is not everything. There is the school of analysts who believe that the breakup of the tripartite ruling alliance will usher such a credible opposition party. I believe it’s not...

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