How the GNU was forged in fire

Mandy Wiener tells the inside story of the formation of the multiparty government. By Marianne Thamm

- By Marianne Thamm

This is the new country in which we find ourselves today. This is the upside of the downside being revealed at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry and Parliament's ad hoc committee hearing on graft in the police.

With the keen eye of the veteran political chronicler, author Mandy Wiener captures the rings of fire, and the skills, that were required and came to the fore in shaping the future of democratic South Africa in 2024.

In 29 days, parties that appeared to be at each other's throats thrashed out a deal on a government of national unity (GNU) while the clock ticked.

What is so unexpected and delightful to learn in Wiener's book - perhaps because we are so accustomed to the noise, theatrics and cosplay of politicians in this age - is how Nelson Mandela's "spirit of '94" prevailed. Tough but delicate - negotiation balanced with rigorous thought, foresight, painful truth-speaking and action.

Individuals in the ANC and the DA, who had cut their teeth at those shape-shifting Codesa talks 30 years ago, had kept what they learnt in their back pockets.

We watch the leadership and expertise of people such as former DA leaders Tony Leon and Helen Zille in nailing down every last detail, while current leader John Steenhuisen has to cross a leadership Rubicon.

We encounter the DA's straight-talking former strategist Ryan Coetzee, flown in from Dubai, and we bump into a Fikile Mbalula who is less of a buffoon than his public persona suggests he is. There is also the nimble footwork of the ANC's calm, steadfast, pragmatic Fébé Potgieter-Gqubule and Nkenke Kekana, who are steeped in the party's approach to negotiation.

Kekana, Wiener writes, described Zille as running the DA "like the general secretary of the Communist Party", while the ANC's approach was more "consensus-based".