Everybody knows about the Jacob Zuma prophecy. The one where he says that the ANC will rule until Jesus comes again. But there is another prophecy that is lost in the evanescence of the social media feed.
In 2019 in leaked audio, Helen Zille was recorded as saying that she would rather make demands of “Cyril Ramaphosa’s ANC” than anyone else.
The language she uses is strong and forceful.
It is clear that Zille feels that she holds the whip hand, and the expectation is that Ramaphosa will dance to whatever tune the DA plays.
Zille’s DA was in the throes of purging anything that resembled progressivism from the party.
She and others were building a stable that would only accommodate white thoroughbred liberals at the top table of the DA.
Tertius Simmers and Siviwe Garube are just there for optics.
The real stars of the show are former UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg’s lapdog Ryan Coetzee, and Tony Leon.
In the leaked recording Zille said, “I think we need to consolidate the DA around 20 percent of the vote. It’s a bloody strong percentage… We mustn’t try to be populist. Twenty percent is big… and if the ANC falls to, let's say, 40%, I’d rather make TOUGH DEMANDS on Cyril Ramaphosa’s ANC, to FORCE reforms out of THEM than go into coalition with anyone else.”
A coalition that Zille forces from Cyril Ramaphosa would be white minority rule as Zille herself points out later in the audio leak.
“We mustn’t try to be a fifty percent party (it is unclear as to whether she says fifty or thirty percent). We’re wanting twenty percent of South Africans, and remember there’s only eight percent of white voters between about fifteen to twenty percent. That gives us a strong consolidated block in coalitions”.
It is telling that Helen Zille does not say “The ANC”. She says “Cyril Ramaphosa’s ANC”.
Twinned with words such as “force” and “make tough demands” it is clear that she believes that she’s in control, and Ramaphosa is a participant, willing or unwilling, in the DA’s agenda.
Whether Helen Zille’s DA is able to extract what they want from Cyril Ramaphosa’s ANC is still an open question.
This is an excerpt from Roscoe Palm’s piece “The Counter-revolutionary cabal selling out the NDR”.
*** Roscoe Palm is an investigative journalist and a political commentator.
IOL Opinion