Ol’John sleeping on the job

16 February 2020

DA’s ‘Judas’ Steenhuisen has been too reticent since taking over from Maimane

ALL opposition political leaders are motivated, we must believe, by a desire to demonstrate to a large part of the potential electorate that, giv­en a chance, they could lead our country better than incumbents.

Opposition leaders ought to, through public communication and comportment, build confidence in their leadership and cement their positions as superior vision­aries the country’s been waiting for. The weight of expectation on opposition lead­ers, from activists in their parties, mem­bers and the general electorate is that they ought to exhibit a high level of lead­ership traits – often higher than the in­cumbent leader of government. It’s not only about whether or not the elector­ate can trust you with our trillions, but if opposition leaders can’t transcend petty squabbles and set their eyes on what the country must achieve, they fail before the race can even start. How an oppo­sition is run and how it coheres around policy, is critical.

Many other factors will impact on their performance – including, but not limit­ed to, the performance of the incumbent government, which is outside of the op­position’s control.

The DA’s leader Steenhuisen (what is his first name again?) was silent through­out the EFF’s night of madness during the state of the nation address (Sona) (I will revert to this) and only found his voice after Julius Malema and his fight­ers had left the parliamentary chambers on Thursday.

Steenhuisen is supposed to be, at least numerically, second in line to our country’s throne. But as President Cyr­il Ramaphosa was impeded from even greeting his audience, Steenhuisen ap­peared to sink deeper into his chair, un­sure how to intervene and help provide direction.

As the youth slugged it out, Our Per­fect Wedding and all, our president mut­ed through staged and endless points of order, even the elderly Mangosuthu Bu­thelezi stood up, several times, to try save the day. Not Steenhuisen. Not in parlia­ment and not outside.

Generally, Steenhuisen has been a very reticent leader of the official opposition. Forget how the year ended or if he was up to anything. Very few will remember an­yway. But in the period leading to Rama­phosa’s most important Sona yet, Steen­huisen has been a forgettable presence.

The EFF made no secret of its plans to unleash anarchy. The media focus was on the EFF. It worked the media and this, somewhat, also increased interest in So­na. The truth is people like drama. People will remember Mbuyiseni Ndlozi’s jibe at Boy Mamabolo, Our Perfect Wedding guy. People will also recall how Malema’s take on De Klerk was a masterstroke, forcing the ANC, whose members were killed, tortured and buried in shallow graves under De Klerk’s leadership, to defend his presence in parliament. If anything, the last four years of apartheid were the most painful. Chris Hani, Sabelo Phama and many others died needlessly while De Klerk was not only at the helm, but trying to prolong that evil system and refusing to set an election date. It had to take Hani’s killing exactly a year before the elections and threats from Nelson Mandela for De Klerk to do what did not come naturally. I digress, I know.

Malema, knowing very well that par­liament will not accede to his demand, forced ANC leaders to defend an apart­heid killer, by association. The tactic was right. It earned the EFF some kudos. And all this was accomplished in the first 12 minutes of the sitting.

Where the EFF lost the plot was when they went on and on about a man they call Jamnandas, Minister Pravin Gordan. While this is an important demand for them and there are merits in questioning his cult-like status in cabinet, it was abso­lutely unnecessary to spend over an hour heckling over something they were nev­er going to win. As the proceedings were prolonged, the EFF moved from master tacticians to high school palookas. And meanwhile, Steenhuisen was dead silent.

When he tried, early in the year, to speak about how his opposition approach will not be like Mmusi Maimane’s, peo­ple started circulating an old report of his hanky-panky with Terry Kass-Beau­mont, then wife of Herman Mashaba’s erstwhile chief of staff Michael Beau­mont. Maimane’s riposte, labelling him Judas Steenhuisen, seemed to seal his lips further. Surely, Steenhuisen has re­covered remarkably since his office sex scandal that forced him out of his position as KwaZulu-Natal DA leader in 2010 to occupying the most important post not just in the DA, but the country. But can he start saying something?

What this whole episode did was to af­firm that Ramaphosa, while largely at sea about how to rescue our economy, remains our best option. As an educa­tionist, I was more than pleased with the announcement of a new university of sci­ence and innovation in Ekurhuleni. This may not solve our youth unemployment today, but it is a great initiative for our country’s manufacturing hub.

As Ramaphosa was getting the PR right, Steenhuisen was sleeping on the job. He should have unshackled himself from his seat, risen to the occasion. He should have called out the EFF. Steen­huisen needed to show us he is a pres­ident-in-waiting. He failed dismally. I agree with him that he should not criti­cise Ramaphosa and the ANC for its sake.

But he must show us that he is not just sitting silently in parliament, thinking of other people’s wives, and sleeping on the job. He must show that the party, since the departure of Maimane, has evolved to the centre ground of our politics.

In him we must see a worthy occupant of the Union Buildings. Right now, though, ol’John Steenhuisen is a sleeping Tom.

Makhudu Sefara