The May 29 elections results have created a very complex and challenging tactical situation, former Umkhonto weSizwe military wing and Robben Island prisoner Pat Matosa says.
Matosa was reacting on Sunday to the elections outcome.
The stalwart said all decisions that would be taken would be tactical decisions that would have a long-term impact on strategic matters, options and choices.
“The Government of National Unity (GNU) is a tactical decision of control and containment.
“The GNU shall remain open to a number of weaknesses and complex challenges, particularly in critical decision-making in government. The reality of the election results have made very limited choices. The GNU and/or any governing coalition shall be decided by the ANC, the DA and the MKP.
“Outside the above straight-jacket choice and option will be a very weak minority government that will be unable to govern effectively,” Matosa added.
He said the choices of the GNU, tactical as it may be in its character, content and internal logic, was a classic shock doctrine.
The choice of the GNU, desirable as it may be, would ultimately lead to what a number of people hate, and which was “a governance partnership with the bourgeois, neo-liberal Caucasian party, the DA,” he said.
“The better and probably politically palatable choice that may last for five years is the one between the ANC and the MKP. The DA shall never ever accept a Cabinet position, no matter how many are given to it. The DA is totally not interested in taking Cabinet positions.
“The DA is prepared to give the ANC total governance on condition that the DA controls and dominates the legislature and its critical parliamentary portfolio committees, including the Scopa (standing committee on public accounts).”
He said the shock doctrine nature of the GNU tactic will be more visible for everyone to see at this stage.
“The apparent choice is preparing South Africans for an obviously rejected governance partnership between the DA and the ANC.
“A functional stable GNU can’t be formed outside of the DA and the MKP. The MKP-ANC governance partnership is already rejected by the local and the international imperialist bourgeoisie. They have already defined it through their local political vassal, the DA, as a coalition of doom and must therefore be rejected as inappropriate for the RSA.
“If the MKP, for whatever reason, may reject a governance relationship with the ANC, the GNU aspect shall then be concluded with the DA,” he explained.
Matosa reiterated that the DA would control and dominate the legislature, while the ANC would manage a dependent, fragile executive.
“What I am sketching above didn’t start today or yesterday. Go back to the pages of the history of your country. Pay attention now to all the issues that you rejected as conspiracy theory which is/was meant to besmirch the characters of individuals.
“Pay attention to the emergence and formation of structures and institutions of which some of them were seen as anti-apartheid. The GNU choice is a shock doctrine which is preparing all of us not to be shocked when ultimately the ANC and DA govern the country ... with the ANC controlling a weak, dependable executive, while the DA controls the National Assembly.”
The Star
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