Take a leaf out of DA's book

In South Africa's first democratic election in 1994, the Democratic Party (DP), the Democratic Alliance's (DA) predecessor, only managed to get seven seats, while the National Party (NP) that had kept apartheid in place for decades, got 82 seats (21%).

- Sydney Majoko

Three years later, the NP had morphed into the New National Party, which a lot of South Africans seem to have forgotten went into a coalition with the ANC. There is indeed nothing new under the sun.

Jacob Zuma was part of the ANC that swallowed up its old enemy, the NP. In fact, as president in 2009, Zuma nominated the last leader of the NP, Martinus van Schalkwyk, to head a United Nations committee on climate change.

The DA has since managed to turn the DP's 1.7% in '94 to a 21% in 2024, with several Cabinet positions to boot (still to be announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa).

Love or hate their politics, the DA has written the handbook, How To Be An Effective Opposition Party.

The focal point now might be Zuma's uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party and its potential to halt the newly formed government of national unity (GNU) in its tracks.