If it quacks like, er, a coalition… walks like one, then it must be. Neh, gov?
In the latest SABC interview, Shwa watched a Master of Economics instruct everyone on political semantics. Ex-finance minister Tito Mboweni took to the airwaves to deliver a lesson in political terminology. Speaking with the SABC, the former reserve bank governor clarified that the current political arrangement is a coalition, not a government of national unity (GNU), and expressed his dismay that anyone would confuse the two.
Mboweni relished his role as a history teacher, and his tone suggested that anyone who didn’t know this was as clueless as someone who didn’t know how to boil an egg.
Shwa agrees. A coalition is when political parties come together to form a government because none of them could get their act together to win a majority at the polls. A GNU, on the other hand, is when you have a bunch of people who still hate each other but have to work together because the country will fall apart otherwise. Capiche!
