Councillor's Corner
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Lifetime Bluff resident serving his third term in office as representative
of the area. Member of the Democratic Alliance.
of the area. Member of the Democratic Alliance.
This weeks Councillor comments
| Duncan Du Bois |
Phone:467-0343 or mobile:083 291-4913
Municipal Manager - Dr Sutcliffe: Tel 311-2130 ;
SutcliffeM@durban.gov.za
SutcliffeM@durban.gov.za
Report dumping or unauthorised use of verges; Phone 311-7448
Metro All-Call / All hours Tel No.: 361-0000
Metro Police: Tel 402-0680
Brighton Beach SAPS: Tel 451 8060 / 8059
Brighton Beach Community Policing Forum Chairman: Carl Knauff : 082 449-6503
Metro All-Call / All hours Tel No.: 361-0000
Metro Police: Tel 402-0680
Brighton Beach SAPS: Tel 451 8060 / 8059
Brighton Beach Community Policing Forum Chairman: Carl Knauff : 082 449-6503
Useful Contacts
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Towards a new political alignment? •Fri, 22 Jun 2007
The cycles of history continue to provide useful perspectives on current developments. As
was the case 20 years ago, political developments are being driven by extra-parliamentary
politics.
Frederik van Zyl Slabbert’s reason for resigning as leader of the opposition in 1985 was that
the struggle for power had shifted beyond Parliament. The reforms of the P. W. Botha
government unleashed a tidal wave of black political activism based largely on the trade
union movement. Streets and factory floors became the arenas of power. Ministerial
pronouncements were overshadowed by the realities that prevailed outside Parliament. The
agenda of those dominating extra-parliamentary politics of the late eighties was to overthrow
the government. They were successful to the extent that the then NP government
announced a complete change in its strategy and policy on February 2, 1990, and
subsequently abdicated from power. Not until 1994 did Parliament reclaim its position as the
country’s powerhouse.
Rule of law
Many of those who now rule South Africa have first-hand experience of the efficacy of extra-
parliamentary politics. Rhetoric about the rule of law becomes meaningless if on the streets
there is neither the will nor the ability to uphold it.
Whereas in the eighties the government was retreating from a system that was flawed and
failing, today it appears to be falling between the two stools of its alliance partners. The
flaccid and ineffective responses of the ministers of education and health in the face of
strike militancy that has closed schools and hospitals have been eclipsed only by the
inability of the police to afford protection from that militancy.
It is laughable that a government which spends R66 billion on arms to improve the country’s
defences is unable to protect its own property and employees from the intimidatory tactics of
a few bus loads of strikers. Although, as events this week in Durban have shown, police
have been bold in dispersing illegal street traders, that same determination has been
lacking as regards repelling militants that have menaced schools.
In-house dispute
Government credibility has taken a knock as a result of the strike and its consequences.
Apart from comments that show just how out of touch she is with schooling (claiming lost time
can be made up), Education Minister Naledi Pandor has had nothing to say either in support
of improved salary conditions for teachers or in reproving the militancy of certain teachers.
While Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi has headed the
government’s scrumdown with the unions, she has not appeared unduly concerned at the
protracted and disruptive nature of the strike. Of course, she finds herself in a difficult
position. It’s really an in-house dispute among governing partners, which highlights the ANC’
s difficulty in distinguishing between state and partisan interests.
Constitutional rights have also been compromised. While it is a constitutional right to strike,
it is also a constitutional right to work and to receive state services. Coercion and
intimidation by strikers, particularly those of the SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu),
have violated the rights of pupils to receive education and of teachers and health workers to
do their jobs.
Certainly Sadtu has not lived up to the principles it claims. There has been nothing
democratic about how it has gone about forcing schools to close and prescribing when
exams can or cannot be written. Its actions have also made nonsense of the holy writ of the
Freedom Charter which states that “the doors of learning shall be opened to all”.
As things stand, irrespective of the outcome of the strike, the road ahead is a rocky one for
the ANC. Capitulation to union wage demands would shift power out of Parliament and into
the hands of the unelected. This would undercut the moderates within the ANC and scuttle
the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (Gear) policy, which would prove disastrous for
the economy of the country. Should the government refuse to yield to the unions, it would
strengthen its parliamentary standing in the short term. But at the same time the faultlines
within the ANC, SACP, Cosatu alliance would become unmanageable, particularly in the face
of a bloodied but unbowed extra-parliamentary constituency.
Ascendancy regained
During the turbulent days of the late eighties Parliament became a backwater. Only following
the negotiated revolution of the early nineties and the emergence of a new political
alignment in 1994 did it regain its ascendancy. Now history seems set to repeat itself. The
ANC’s house is divided against itself.
A new political alignment is needed. Once again, extra-parliamentary politics looks set to
determine how that alignment evolves. Given her position outside of Parliament, the role of
the DA’s leader, Helen Zille, should not be discounted from that process.
The cycles of history continue to provide useful perspectives on current developments. As
was the case 20 years ago, political developments are being driven by extra-parliamentary
politics.
Frederik van Zyl Slabbert’s reason for resigning as leader of the opposition in 1985 was that
the struggle for power had shifted beyond Parliament. The reforms of the P. W. Botha
government unleashed a tidal wave of black political activism based largely on the trade
union movement. Streets and factory floors became the arenas of power. Ministerial
pronouncements were overshadowed by the realities that prevailed outside Parliament. The
agenda of those dominating extra-parliamentary politics of the late eighties was to overthrow
the government. They were successful to the extent that the then NP government
announced a complete change in its strategy and policy on February 2, 1990, and
subsequently abdicated from power. Not until 1994 did Parliament reclaim its position as the
country’s powerhouse.
Rule of law
Many of those who now rule South Africa have first-hand experience of the efficacy of extra-
parliamentary politics. Rhetoric about the rule of law becomes meaningless if on the streets
there is neither the will nor the ability to uphold it.
Whereas in the eighties the government was retreating from a system that was flawed and
failing, today it appears to be falling between the two stools of its alliance partners. The
flaccid and ineffective responses of the ministers of education and health in the face of
strike militancy that has closed schools and hospitals have been eclipsed only by the
inability of the police to afford protection from that militancy.
It is laughable that a government which spends R66 billion on arms to improve the country’s
defences is unable to protect its own property and employees from the intimidatory tactics of
a few bus loads of strikers. Although, as events this week in Durban have shown, police
have been bold in dispersing illegal street traders, that same determination has been
lacking as regards repelling militants that have menaced schools.
In-house dispute
Government credibility has taken a knock as a result of the strike and its consequences.
Apart from comments that show just how out of touch she is with schooling (claiming lost time
can be made up), Education Minister Naledi Pandor has had nothing to say either in support
of improved salary conditions for teachers or in reproving the militancy of certain teachers.
While Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi has headed the
government’s scrumdown with the unions, she has not appeared unduly concerned at the
protracted and disruptive nature of the strike. Of course, she finds herself in a difficult
position. It’s really an in-house dispute among governing partners, which highlights the ANC’
s difficulty in distinguishing between state and partisan interests.
Constitutional rights have also been compromised. While it is a constitutional right to strike,
it is also a constitutional right to work and to receive state services. Coercion and
intimidation by strikers, particularly those of the SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu),
have violated the rights of pupils to receive education and of teachers and health workers to
do their jobs.
Certainly Sadtu has not lived up to the principles it claims. There has been nothing
democratic about how it has gone about forcing schools to close and prescribing when
exams can or cannot be written. Its actions have also made nonsense of the holy writ of the
Freedom Charter which states that “the doors of learning shall be opened to all”.
As things stand, irrespective of the outcome of the strike, the road ahead is a rocky one for
the ANC. Capitulation to union wage demands would shift power out of Parliament and into
the hands of the unelected. This would undercut the moderates within the ANC and scuttle
the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (Gear) policy, which would prove disastrous for
the economy of the country. Should the government refuse to yield to the unions, it would
strengthen its parliamentary standing in the short term. But at the same time the faultlines
within the ANC, SACP, Cosatu alliance would become unmanageable, particularly in the face
of a bloodied but unbowed extra-parliamentary constituency.
Ascendancy regained
During the turbulent days of the late eighties Parliament became a backwater. Only following
the negotiated revolution of the early nineties and the emergence of a new political
alignment in 1994 did it regain its ascendancy. Now history seems set to repeat itself. The
ANC’s house is divided against itself.
A new political alignment is needed. Once again, extra-parliamentary politics looks set to
determine how that alignment evolves. Given her position outside of Parliament, the role of
the DA’s leader, Helen Zille, should not be discounted from that process.
You can contact Councillor D Du Bois by e-mail @ dubois@axxess.co.za