In the wake of the recent election, South Africa finds itself at the cusp of monumental change. Just two months ago, the end of the ANC's 30-year majority heralded a new chapter filled with hope and promise, lifting the nation from the depths of despair. The Government of National Unity (GNU), under the assertive leadership of President Ramaphosa, has taken decisive steps forward. With constitutionalists at the helm, the political landscape is transforming, sidelining reactionary forces and populists. The challenge now is to sustain this momentum and deliver tangible improvements in the lives of ordinary South Africans..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here..Join us for BizNews' first investment-focused conference on Thursday, 12 September, in Hermanus, featuring top experts like Frans Cronje, Piet Viljoen, and more. Get insights on electricity and exploiting SA's gas bounty from new and familiar faces. Register here..By Dirk Hartford .The change ushered in by the election less than two months ago has been both seismic and overwhelmingly positive, taken against the anxiety and gloom of the dying years of the ANC's 30-year-long majority government. .___STEADY_PAYWALL___.The constitutionalists, so far ably led by a more assertive President Ramaphosa and his Government of National Unity, are now clearly identified. Not least of all in the ANC itself. .The GNU constitutionalists who now hold political power have seized the initiative and are currently doing all the running..Read more 🔒 Dirk Hartford: SA's moment of GNU – time for change.Meanwhile, the reactionary anti-constitutionalists of MK and the flip-flopping populist EFF, with their irrelevant allies in the misnamed Progressive Caucus, have been able to do nothing so far but bleat their increasingly tired old mantras from the sidelines..With their corrupt and criminal nature now on display as never before, thanks to the latest revelations of an old VBS story, their protestations sound and appear increasingly hollow and farcical..This wasn't the case in the run-up to the election. The EFF, whatever one thinks of them and their leader Malema, ran an outstanding election campaign..Their marketing and self-promotion were spectacular – not least of all when Malema rose Hitler- like on a podium before a delirious jam-packed crowd in the FNB stadium on the EFF's 10th anniversary..Malema was going for broke. He was banking on the EFF being the second biggest party and a kingmaker in the election with the ANC, which he rightly perceived to be in dramatic decline..He saw no less than the position of deputy President in his sights, and there was reason to believe things might end that way..Six months before the election, polls were predicting the EFF would get 18% of the vote, and the EFF and Malema were still only getting into their stride then..That is until Jacob Zuma came along with his MK party in December and upset the whole apple cart. The rest is history..The performance of MK's campaign – chaotic, opportunist and entirely built around Zuma's brazen self-interest, victimhood and 100% Zulu boy persona – was unprecedented in its spectacular success at the polls ultimately..But it wasn't enough. Its result was actually the opposite of what Zuma (and Malema) had hoped to achieve, which was to seize control of Ramaphosa's ANC itself..Instead, the election result has driven what was left of their beloved ANC into the arms of the "enemy" – the stooges of "white monopoly capital" – and left them powerless, chirping from the opposition benches..At the end of the day, when it comes down to political leaders, there were only three – Ramaphosa, Zuma and Malema – who could be said to have real resonance amongst the mass of the electorate. .Ramaphosa alone has emerged triumphant, despite the hammering the ANC took at the polls, and in his whole demeanour he appears to be more invigorated than he has been for a long time. As if he has been freed up in a manner of speaking..Malema has taken a real hammering. He can't quite believe where he has ended up, playing second fiddle to a bunch of Zuma's stooges in the "Progressive Caucus". .He has blamed everybody, including the voters themselves, for the predicament the EFF now finds itself in with their declining support. But the real reason for the EFF's demise is obviously his old nemesis Jacob Zuma himself, whom he knows he must tread extremely carefully around..The renewed focus on his personal role in the VBS saga—long ago brilliantly exposed by journalist Pauli van Wyk but now brought again into sharp focus by Matodzi's affidavit—has only added to his woes..His fake news agitprop and disingenuous baiting of Ramaphosa and all things "white" ring more and more hollow and pathetic and do nothing to hide the fact that he himself is a tinpot emperor with clothes from Louboutin, Gucci and the like..Luxuries paid for, as Van Wyk's analysis of his credit card spend showed, with money stolen from the poorest of the poor..One can only hope that, at the very least, his old demand to "pay back the money" soon rings in his own ears as well as all those other leaders from the EFF, SACP and ANC who feasted off the VBS carcass..Zuma is, as always, the trickster in the pack of the Progressive Caucus. What his next moves will be is anybody's guess. He is now the apparent inspiration behind a new teacher's union that could soon wreak havoc in Cosatu..While Malema could run rings around Zuma's appointees to parliament – especially the vain, shameless and incompetent "Judge" John Hlope – he is forced to bite the bullet and toe the "Progressive Caucus" line while Zuma's still the real force driving MK..Although the line between the constitutionalists in the GNU and the anti-constitutionalists in the Progressive Caucus has never been clearer, and we should be very grateful for this. There is no room for complacency. The battle for the heart and soul of the ANC is not done and dusted..MK and EFF still tap into a deep well in the ANC/SACP/Cosatu alliance, which believes all these orphans of the historic ANC family could and should finally return home as it were. There could still be splits from the ANC alliance in the coming period..The best way to counter this is for the GNU to move as rapidly as possible to exert its authority and make real changes which have a direct bearing on the lives of ordinary South Africans. This should be happening even as preparations are made for some kind of national dialogue..Read more: South Africa's GNU: Making the case for hope – Brian Levy.There are already some positive examples, not least of all from the likes of Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosiento Ramokgopa and Sports, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie..McKenzie, in particular, who, alongside Zuma, was the only politician to really grow his support base in the election, has been a breath of fresh air and has already begun to shake things up..Other politicians could take a leaf out of his book when it comes to how he is using social media to be both transparent and to go on the record with what he intends to do..Of course, one assumes he will put his money where his mouth is, and we will see where things end up, but he has certainly got off to a good, if rumbustious, start..His energy and commitment to change are precisely what the whole GNU government needs to emulate if we are to pull back from the abyss that still awaits us..Read also:.🔒 RW Johnson: Poorly negotiated GNU leaves major players with huge challenges, future problemsRamaphosa's unity cabinet: Strategic moves for South Africa's futureIn full: President Ramaphosa's cabinet announcement speech
