Alec Hogg: Helen Zille predicts SA choice will be DA or EFF

To any external observer, South Africa's political landscape is ripe for change. Yet, for many of those inside the fishbowl, it remains inconceivable that the electorate will eject its morally and financially broken ruling political party..The ANC itself, however, is helping to change those minds..DA Federal Council chair Helen Zille (above) reckons SA's winds of change are blowing up a storm. In our interview last night, she opined that voters will soon be faced with a choice of free enterprise DA or socialist EFF because "the ANC doesn't know what it stands for.".___STEADY_PAYWALL___.Zille shared the trump card that could block the re-opening of candidate registrations, which would throw the ANC a lifeline in overcoming a looming electoral disaster. A superb piece on Politicsweb by RW Johnson taps into the roots of what is now transpiring..The stakes have rarely been higher. We may well be less than two months away from a political watershed. While the ANC has been fighting itself and missing registration dates (and salary runs for its staff) other its opponents have been beavering away..When opening the BizNews Investment Conference last week, former DA leader Mmusi Maimane told us his One SA Movement has helped community organisations register 350 independent candidates in local constituencies. This is a potentially potent force which few have considered..Maimane's pal Herman Mashaba has been equally focused, with his Action SA having registered candidates in every ward of the half-dozen municipalities it will contest next month. The DA has gone one better and, for the first time, will have a candidate in every contestable ward in the country..Continental signals are similarly powerful..Less than a month ago, Zambians ejected their version of the ANC by electing free-enterprise focused HH Hichelema, who not long ago spent five months in jail for refusing to give way to the now-former president's cavalcade. And over the weekend, Guinea's 81-year-old president Alpha Conde was arrested in a military coup. He has ruled the bauxite-rich nation since 2010, allegedly fixing "elections" Mugabe-style. The aluminium price surged to its highest level in a decade..Overnight sensations, especially in politics, are often decades in the making. South Africa's, long in gestation, may soon be upon us.

Alec Hogg: Helen Zille predicts SA choice will be DA or EFF

Related Stories

Hartford: The struggle generation that built non-racial SA — and the movement that betrayed it

Hersov: There are two South Africas — it's time Washington started treating them differently

The Section 89 report decoded: the charges against Ramaphosa that could end his presidency

Helen Zille: Joburg’s fairytale budget - the madness has to stop now