WILLIAM GUMEDE | As the ANC implodes, the DA and other centrist parties must step in and govern

With the ANC in terminal decline, President Cyril Ramaphosa a lame-duck leader fighting possible impeachment, and South Africa seemingly on autopilot amid manifold existential crises, the DA and other parties in the government of national unity (GNU) must step up to the plate and provide the country with the leadership it so desperately needs.

As the ANC enters its death throes, a leadership vacuum is opening up at the centre of South Africa’s government, economy and society. Alarmingly, this space is being filled by populist figures and organisations. These leaders, sorely lacking in wide-ranging knowledge of South Africa’s diverse society and sophisticated economy, are entirely ignorant of matters beyond their own village, township or ethnic group. There is now also a slew of one-issue politicians and parties prescribing simplistic and dangerous solutions to complex challenges.

Opportunistic leaders are weaponising South Africa’s historical divisions — blaming the past, whites, white-owned businesses and African foreigners for all the country’s ills — to gain the popularity and power they need for a ticket to the bling life.

With the rise of social media, everyone is now a pop-up expert and intellectual. Many of these online analysts do not read at all, let alone widely, and have little understanding of the diverse peoples of South Africa, the sophistication of the country’s economy, and the complexity of international relations. These charlatans put forward analyses that are based not on historical fact and hard evidence but on disinformation and superficial internet memes.

Such persons and groups have made South Africa’s public discourse toxic, unfactual and defamatory. As an unfortunate consequence, South Africans capable of making sensible, informed and evidence-based decisions are increasingly withdrawing from public engagement to avoid being drawn into the mire of our civic conversation.

However, it is incumbent upon civil society institutions, business leaders and professionals of all sorts to step into the breach and provide alternative leadership, policies and direction for the country.

Given the ongoing collapse of the ANC, caused by its moral disintegration and deleterious policies, beleaguered ordinary citizens, third-sector organisations and captains of industry have had to challenge the ANC’s anti-growth, anti-prosperity agenda in the courts.

Other constitutional centres of power — for example, the judiciary and Chapter Nine institutions such as the Human Rights Commission — must also provide crucial leadership in the current violent, lawless and populist context in which we are living.

As the second-biggest party in South Africa and the GNU, the DA must now start to function as if it were the government.