Cyril is kicking can down hill

The drubbing that the ANC took in last year's election was arguably the most momentous event in South Africa's democratic era. It left the country in a political impasse.

- William Saunderson-Meyer

Barring a "black swan" event that unexpectedly upends everything, the country's prospects over the coming year are entwined with the fate of the government of national unity (GNU). But it doesn't suffice for the GNU simply to survive. It has to thrive and reverse the terrible depredations exacted on the economy.

That, in turn, depends primarily on the ANC reconciling itself to the concessional nature of coalition politics. It means a willingness to compromise on its ideological fixations in the interests of the greater national good.

Unfortunately, there is no sign of this happening. While it is too weak to run the country as a minority government, the ANC is nevertheless powerful enough to hold the whip hand in a GNU where it is backed by a feeble array of centrist parties.

Always hanging over the opposition participants in the GNU is the awareness that they share in the perks of governance at the ANC's pleasure. The ANC could instead form a GNU with the hard left parties, uMkhonto weSizwe party and the EFF.