In this Mailbox critique, the author, writing under the pseudonym Thusasizwe Sithole, uses a vivid analogy likening the behaviour of South Africa’s political parties, particularly the ANC, EFF, and MK, to scavenging animals feasting on a carcass.
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From Thusasizwe Sithole*
The way to think of the ANC and it’s socialist derivatives, the EFF and MK, is the observed behaviour of hyenas, vultures and jackals feeding on a carcass under the African sky. There is a hierarchy of authority at the carcass and an enormous amount of squabbling and bickering about who gets to feed on what morsel. But the feeding can only take place off a dead animal, so it’s a zero-sum dynamic where one party’s gain equates to another’s direct loss. Such dynamics are inherently volatile and competitive; therefore, they have a high conflict potential.
To give greater depth to this analogy, we overlay it with the sociological concept of Anomie. This describes the endless desire for more gratification, devoid of any norms, so it becomes a destructive process of self-gratification that cannot ever be slated. This is how Durkheim describes it: “Durkheim never used the term normlessness; rather, he described anomie as “derangement”, and “an insatiable will.” Durkheim used the term “the malady of the infinite” because desire without limit can never be fulfilled; it only becomes more intense.”
Both of these things strengthen my argument that a coalition among socialist parties will be inherently unstable.
Read also
- Election’24: Is the ANC-MPC coalition the “least worst option”? – Katzenellenbogen
- John Micklethwait: Why this is SA’s most important election since Apartheid
- Helen Zille on how DA selects MPs; Zuma, coalitions, Western Cape and McKenzie
*This is a nom de plume – the identity of the author is known to the Editor of BizNews
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