NKOSINGIPHILE DLADLA
Durban — As coalition talks between political parties across KZN intensify this week, Struggle stalwart and anti-apartheid activist, Dr Allan Boesak, has called on the ANC and other progressive formations that contested the 2024 elections to avoid getting into bed with the DA, stating that this is a “recipe for disaster”.
Boesak was reflecting on the 2024 general elections during an exclusive interview with Daily News editor Ayanda Mdluli on Monday.
The 2024 elections marked a significant turning point for the country’s democratic journey and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region at large.
Boesak said it has been 30 years of a democratic test for most South Africans, a period that rather felt like a betrayal to those whose lives remained stagnant.
According to Boesak, the recent elections were historic, and to an extent more important than the 1994 elections.
“These elections were historic, it is a turning point in a sense. It is even more important than 1994. I say this because in 1994 we took a lot of things for granted,” he said.
Boesak believes 1994 was the period during which the ANC presented itself not only as a party that understood the history of the Struggle but also as people who knew what needed to be done to correct the wrongs.
Three decades later, to some it was a taste of democracy; to others three decades of betrayal.
“So we have had 30 years of democracy, but to some, it has been 30 years of betrayal,” Boesak said.
After the recent elections, the country is for the first time finding itself in a situation where there has to be a coalition at a national level, Boesak said.
“Now we are in a situation where for the first time we have to go into coalition on a national level. We now have to go into coalition because no one has an outright majority and as things stand the clearest coalition plans at the moment are those of the ANC and the DA,” he said.
The day the ANC goes into coalition with the DA is the day the organisation as a political party will cease to be, Boesak said.
He would not know if everybody within the ANC agrees with his view, he added.
“Now I do not know if everybody in the ANC agrees with this. I know myself that if the ANC goes into coalition with the DA, that almost spells the final demise of the African National Congress as a party and that would be disastrous for the country,” Boesak said.
He added that the DA is diametrically opposed to what the ANC stands for, across the board.
The party differs on all the issues the ANC seeks to address, he said, for instance on the question of the land, overturning the economic situation and breaking the cycles of impoverishment or the economic policies of the past making this country a truly none-racial society and bringing about an education that will not only be equal for South African children but also bring equal opportunities across races. Almost all of which ‘none’ has happened.
Dr Boesak believes that the new National Party members camouflaged in DA regalia fought against everything that the ANC stands for, claiming they were defending their lives. He went on to express how a coalition where these two parties would come under a common goal is impossible.
“So for me, it is absolutely impossible to think of that kind of a coalition, what is it,” Boesak said.
Outside of these two political parties, Dr Boesak called for unity in committing against what the ANC failed to achieve in the last thirty years.
“So I’m making an appeal to all those political parties outside the two (ANC+DA) to say can we rise up together now, can we put our differences aside, can we agree on a fundamental commitment to all of those things that the African National Congress has failed to do,” said Dr Boesak appealing to all political parties.
The appeal was Dr Boesak’s proposed coalition on a national level, saying most of these parties he believes must come together have not been tested on a national level.
He said this coming together could actually be coming against a disastrous ANC/ DA coalition.
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