#SliceOfGasant columnist Gasant Abarder wants this new government of compromise to get to work urgently and put our country back on track. It’s going to be a mountain to climb with the unlikely bed partners that have chosen each other.
Another Youth Day – this time in the 30th anniversary year of our democracy – has passed and we continue to fail the youth. If there was any hope this Government of National Unity would stem the ridiculously high rate of youth unemployment, then it would have been quelled by ANC deputy president Paul Mashatile.
Mashatile, in a live televised news broadcast, had the audacity to say: ‘In the next five years we will address the issue of youth unemployment.’ These were among several other ‘in the next five years…’ promise. Paul, what the hell have you done in government over the last five years?
Our staggering unemployment rate of 33 percent and a growing middle class are declining fast thanks to the rising cost of living. Lower-income households can hardly feed their families. In all likelihood, we are going to have Cyril ‘The Meek’ Ramaphosa as president with coalition partners, the DA, Patriotic Alliance and the IFP. This is not the government I voted for but I remain optimistic because it is the political outcome I wanted: a multiparty coalition government that can hold itself accountable.
I would’ve hoped the government would have comprised progressive forces that wanted real change and would put the prosperity of the people first. Now, I’m left with the impression that a second-term washout president in Cyril The Meek will push us further into an abyss. The DA, which doesn’t believe in a minimum wage that protects workers, boasts of a track record in government in the Cape yet it took me two hours to renew my licence drivers card last week.
The IFP are rising like zombies from the grave thanks to this coalition. And the PA is a hateful little party which, given the chance, wants to drive all black migrants out of our borders. Oh, did I mention the PA and the DA are both supporters of the genocidal, bloodthirsty Israeli government? The IFP is so inconsequential, I don’t even know what their position on Israel is.
Can these parties put their vast differences and red-line issues aside for the greater good? I hope so but I don’t think it will last until the next elections. But this is what we can’t afford. We can’t wait another five years to create jobs. We can’t wait five years for youth graduates to find work in the fields they studied so hard to work in. We can’t wait five years for our economy to stabilise. We can’t wait five years for a reliable and safe public transport system. We can’t wait five years for affordable social housing closer to places of work. We can’t wait five years for our electricity to be sorted out.
Cyril, as president, may be a non-negotiable for this GNU, but I sincerely hope we don’t carry the likes of Mashatile and others who only make promises but never deliver in government.
We need a GNU with a plan of action and deliverables. We want timelines. We want consequences for those guilty of corruption, theft and waste. We want a leaner cabinet and executive. We want a revised ministerial handbook with austere guidelines. We want performance contracts for all who hold key portfolios. We want domestic ownership of our land and resources and to stop selling them to foreign corporations only to buy it back as finished materials. But most of all, as a child who grew up believing in the real ANC, we want the ideals of the Freedom Charter realised of a government for the people by the people, the doors of learning being open and jobs and dignity for all who live here.
We are fortunate in South Africa, where we have a free press, working Chapter 9 institutions, a democracy that has remained steadfast and a peaceful response to our new transition to a GNU. Jacob Zuma may yet pierce this peaceful bubble with the spear of his MK party. He speaks dangerously, especially in an area of our country that has seen unrest and violence in his name.
I can’t wait five more years. I want this GNU to work for South Africans now.
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Picture: Tobias Reich / Unsplash
