By Alec Hogg
At BNC#5 earlier this month, Gayton McKenzie of the Patriotic Alliance said this party would switch back into the Rainbow Coalition (DA, IFP, ActionSA, FF+, ACDP) if DA Federal Council Chair Helen Zille exited the political stage. Doing so would immediately put the anti-ANC coalition in control of major Gauteng Metros, a host of other councils elsewhere – and position it well to win the National Election next year.
McKenzie’s case is being strongly promoted by the business sector’s most vocal activist for change, global entrepreneur Rob Hersov. He sent me a piece over the weekend which is on BizNews.com (click here) where he argues passionately for the parties to put the nation ahead of personalities and learn from recent events.
For context he refers to last week’s Swellendam by-election in the DA’s Western Cape heartland. Despite polling 272 fewer votes than in November 2021, the ANC won the ward from the DA – purely and simply because of a surge in support for McKenzie’s Patriotic Alliance which polled higher than the DA (table above tells the story).
The by-election and others like it recently, re-affirms what Frans Cronje told us last week: the Rainbow Coalition has lost momentum and the ANC’s slide has stopped. Voters have stopped leaving the ANC because, as Cronje’ articulated so well four months ago, bickering among opposition parties suggests they’re just as bad as the incumbent. Seems it’s not just the ANC which is expert at scoring own-goals.
More for you to read:
- Rob Hersov says the DA must learn from its loss to the ANC of a by-election last week in its Western Cape heartland. Click here.
- ANC Cabinet blows R58 million on free water, security upgrades and electricity to escape load-shedding. Click here.
- RW Johnson: The real role that Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa will be playing. Click here.
