Letter: DA doesn’t seem equipped to shoot ANC sitting duck
IN its present, seemingly unchangeable form, the ANC has become very bad news for all South Africans. The only way for meaningful change is through the ballot box.
The DA needs to realise that, being the only acceptable alternative to the ANC, its half-cocked election campaign poses as big a threat to our democracy as do the incumbents.
The reality is that the ANC has turned itself into a “sitting duck” in electoral terms – but for a duck shoot you need ammunition and in this context, surprisingly, the DA seems not well-equipped enough.
It has become abundantly clear that the ANC’s system of “oiling the machine” is predicated on making opportunities available to a corrupt coterie of middlemen, fixers, gatekeepers and licensers. This is how patronage, ANC-style, works.
This is also why getting rid of Jacob Zuma is only a “nice to have”.To restore functionality to myriad aspects of South African life detrimentally affected by corruption and incompetence, the ANC has to go!
The DA’s election spearhead must be well packaged, powerfully presented and widely broadcast. Are Mmusi Maimane and his senior lieutenants falling short here?
Personalised finger-pointing at the ANC may well have the opposite of the desired effect. Wouldn’t it be better to demonstrate cause and effect of bad versus good governance?
Why not compare ANC and DA track records as graphically as possible, in easy-to-understand, well-illustrated literature, covering those aspects where people are suffering most due to the ANC’s disastrous performance?
When the DA coalition took control of the Cape Town metro, it quickly and skillfully neutralised the corrupt, ineffective structures put in place by the ANC. Cape Town metro has just announced a budgetary surplus for the outgoing year – and everything works!
It’s unfortunately true that most voters still see their political options within the ANC context, that is they will vote for the ANC unless they are very unhappy (in which case they just won’t vote). All the more reason why the DA should translate its achievements into an electoral fireworks display and, in so doing, dislodge the sitting duck.
