KwaZulu-Natal has lived through instability in governance since the dawn of democracy. Premiers and their members of the executive council just don’t survive long enough to complete whatever they start. Zuma’s party would be no exception.
The spectre of a chaotic uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party being in charge is a diversionary political expedient by partners in the KwaZulu-Natal government of provincial unity (GPU) to the reality that since the dawn of freedom, stability in the corridors of power has been an exception rather than the norm. While the Constitution allows for a maximum two five-year terms in office for a premier, in three decades the province is into the tenure of a 10th incumbent. That has more to do with internal ructions in the ANC and the IFP than the will of the electorate.
More importantly, the facade of unity in support of the National Freedom Party’s sole member in the legislature,Mbali Shinga, who defies her party to prop up the GPU, is unsustainable precisely because of the origins of the organisation and the alleged hand of MK president Jacob Zuma’s in its formation in the first place. As the ANC, the IFP, the National Freedom Party (NFP) and the DA slug it out for power in the coming crunch local government elections, the veneer of decency in their mutual disdain will evaporate. That is the kind of environment that has resulted in the province largely failing to sustain stability in governance over the years.
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The high turnover of premiers has invariably come with a revolving door circus of Cabinet reshuffles. Before we try to understand how we got here, it is important to state upfront that MK is simply not ready to govern the province. It can’t manage its own house.
The majority of the cohort of members currently deployed in the legislature could never constitute a decent government among themselves. With the exception of a handful, they lack experience to understand legislative processes and the implications of postures of defiance and disregard for the rules. Frequent changes in leadership while in a hostile environment has deprived them of an opportunity to learn the ropes in the face of a thoroughly condescending attitude from legislature old hands in government.
But the question is whether an MK government would be any more unstable than what we have seen since 1994. History is instructive. Those were difficult times.
Enmity between the ANC and the IFP was palpable in the corridors of power while their members were being murdered in the thousands outside. The IFP dismissed Mdlalose. He was perceived by hardliners within the party as being “too soft” towards the ANC.
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