Opposition under pipe-dream spell
Our political savannah is restless, again. The vultures of ambition are circling, not around a kill, but around the crumbling edifice of the ANC and the barren landscape of opposition politics. Word reaches us that a new herd is being assembled in the kraal of centrism – Rise Mzansi, Good and Bosa – trying to merge their disparate bellows into one mighty roar for 2026.
On the surface, Shwa thinks it makes a kind of desperate sense, doesn’t it? The people are gatvol. They are tired of the grandstanding, the empty promises, and the ideological constipation, while raw sewage of a very literal kind flows through their streets.
They don’t want a revolution; they want a refuse removal truck that arrives on time. They want the lights on. Is that too much to ask? Apparently, for the current crop of clowns in the circus, it is. So, this new bloc talks a good game.
They speak of moving beyond “personality politics”. A noble sentiment, indeed. But then, in a move so predictable it could be set to a clock, the one personality who could out-ego a statue, Herman Mashaba, pulls his ActionSA wagon out of the convoy.
Hectic! There’s your first clue, right there. It’s like trying to build a braai with wet wood and no firelighters – all smoke, no flame, and plenty of hot air.
The question, then, for this hopeful yet weary nation, is whether this merger is a genuine phoenix rising from the ashes of failed municipalities or just another bunch of turkeys dressing up for an early Christmas. It is a patchwork quilt of desperation, stitched together with the thin thread of political convenience, and one fears a single tug from a heavyweight ego – and there are a few lurking – could unravel the whole thing.
