Justice Malala

“Yet these vastly different forces have been in an unhealthy, even toxic, embrace since the start of the democratic era. Cosatu has stopped the ANC from implementing its economic policies, while the ANC has caved in to its allies’ sectarian whims. The youth wage subsidy that was crafted and put on the table by former Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan was nearly stopped by Cosatu for partisan reasons.37 Implementation of the National Development Plan (NDP) is stalled because of Cosatu’s intransigence. Moves to stop teachers from striking and to up their performance are routinely throttled by Cosatu.38”
― Justice Malala, We have now begun our descent: How to Stop South Africa losing its way

“The DA, however, was left with the toxic stink of the party of apartheid despite the fact that the NP had found its home in the warm bosom of the ANC. The DA has never been able to shake off this stink, hence the general perception that it was the party of privilege and of apartheid. Incredibly, survey respondents still express a fear that, if elected, the DA would ‘bring back apartheid’. Even the powerful memory of Helen Suzman – for years the lone voice of opposition in the apartheid parliament – cannot wipe this perception away.25 In the run-up to the 2014 election, the ANC was faced with a massive problem. Its president, Zuma, was discredited and was and remains by all accounts a liability.26 Its deployed cadres in government were mired in one scandal after another. Service delivery protests were spreading while Cosatu was imploding. Yet the party had its ‘shy voters’. It merely slipped from 65.9 per cent to 62 per cent of the vote. Given its problems and the bad press it received, the ANC fooled many among us. One London-based analyst had doggedly predicted that the ANC would fall to 55 per cent of the vote.27 He was wrong.”
― Justice Malala, We have now begun our descent: How to Stop South Africa losing its way