SA politics needs less vinegar, more honey

Yesterday’s display in parliament – where the EFF played its usual game of shouting and interrupting during President Cyril Ramaphosa’s question time – is an example of typical South African politics: make noise while the whole edifice burns up around you.

It is obvious that attitude, when extrapolated on to a national scale, will cause nothing but suffering.

To save this country from becoming yet another African basket case, we’re all going to have to start working together and stop the petty political point scoring.

The much-maligned government of national unity (GNU) has, despite threatening to shake itself apart on occasion, also shown what cooperation can achieve.

As DA leader John Steenhuisen put it in that famous White House circus, his party joined with the ANC to keep the “rabble”, like the Kill the Boer-singing EFF, out of the Union Buildings.

Ironically, then, the DA needs to start compromising a bit more with its larger partner in the GNU, the ANC.

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Whatever you may think of such a suggestion, compromise and cooperation are what we need now.

And Communications Minister Solly Malatsi doesn’t seemed to have learned that – at least not by the seemingly furtive way he introduced proposed amendments to broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) as it applies to the telecommunications sector.

His colleagues in the GNU were clearly taken aback and, rightly or wrongly, saw the DA minister as trying to pave the way for Elon Musk’s Starlink to operate here.

Whether that is a good idea or not is beside the point.

If a GNU is to work then there must be unity, not continuous disagreement.

The DA has already been fractious when it comes to the question of education law reform, as well as land expropriation without compensation.

Perhaps it is time to ponder the old saying: you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

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