Which clause in South Africa’s much-acclaimed Constitution specifically provides for the formation of coalition governments at local, provincial and national level.
I tried checking for information in this regard but my efforts drew a blank.
Maybe I am blind, hence I am writing this opinion piece subject to correction and guidance.
For now I am saying the so-called coalition governments are merely private arrangements entered into by parties who want to have a share in the looted resources of the state via tenders.
It seems like the public is accepting these coalition arrangements because they have been in place all along.
This would be mental inertia; doing things the way we do them just because it is the way they have been done before.
Coalition arrangements are a clear and present danger as seen at municipal level countrywide.
Now, adherents of coalition governments want all and sundry to accept something that has failed.
These adherents are like a doctor who would give a terminally ill patient the same treatment and medication that he was giving to him in the early stages of his illness, and expect the self-same medication to dramatically heal the patient in the terminal stages of his illness.
If the selfsame medication didn’t work out well in the early stages of the illness, how will it then suddenly work out well in the terminal stages of the illness?
Those who enter into coalition arrangements are like the proverbial motley crew.
A simple definition of a motley crew is a diverse and poorly organised group of people.
This group doesn’t share anything in common except the common desire to get rid of whoever is in possession of wealth and power, then down the road their differences will emerge and they will start fighting against one another.
Adherents of coalition governments say laws shall be put in place binding those who have entered into these coalition arrangements to stay put and toe the line.
The adherents say this will prevent those who are in this coalitions from causing instability, boycotts and walkouts in Parliament.
But this is wishful thinking because South Africa is full of politicians who are perennial litigants and soon after signing the very law that binds them to a coalition, they will be taking the self-same law to court, demanding that it be scrapped as it is unconstitutional etc.
Now when the perennial litigants are in court squabbling over this law, the government will collapse as no decision would be taken if there is no consensus by the majority in Parliament.
And as we have seen in municipalities the removal of mayors and speakers at the drop of a hat, we are going to see the change of presidents and National Assembly speakers every year or so.
This will result in chaos, instability and lack of service delivery.
I suggested that there must be a rerun of elections in the event that there is no outright winner after the elections, but some legally opinionated folks told me that there is no provision for such in the Constitution.