Victory!

I'm not sure if its just me, or if most people take an active interest in their respective coutries politics. Recently South Africa had their local elections to decide who would control the different provinces. For the last few years the ANC (African National Congress) has had complete control of the country, not only at national but at local level as well. In my opinion theyve done nithing more than a rubbish job.

This wasnt always the case though, up until a few years ago the D.A. (Democratic Alliance) controlled the Western Cape (the province I live in) and the I.F.P. (Inkatha Freedom Party) controlled the Kwazulu Natal province (yes, as the name suggests, majority Zulu support), the other 7 provinces were controlled by the ANC.

The DA are considered the official opposition and a few years ago they noticed a clause in our constitution which they thought could be used to their benefit. They exploited this clause, but unfortunately it backfired. The clause was to do with the Floor crossing policy which hadnt been realised, what it meant was that even after I've casted my vote, there is a set time where members of parliament are allowed to 'cross the floor' to another party, and retain there seat. Hence increasing the size and power of the respective party. The DA thought that they could get more officials on their side, from a moral point of view, thereby increasing their fight for democracy. How naive, the ANC is the dominant party, the party that runs the state, and therefore the party with the most money to dish out. What were the DA thinking? Money talks fools!

So after storm settled, the DA had lost a significant number of its members, enought to make sure that the ANC were left with complete control of all 9 provinces. Until the next elections that is, after much 'politics', backstabbing, and new allegiances the DA have regained control of the Western Cape. The weeks political situation can almost be called a Coup d' tat.
For full details go to www.iol.co.za (please do, and follow the info on Helen Zille)

The reason why I think this is brilliant, is not only do I think the ANC are casuing more problems than doing good, but now we have something to compare their performance to. Perhaps they really have been doing the best they can, but the state of the country is in far worse a condition that thought, hence making the task a bit mroe difficult than the man on the street can comprehend.

We call ourselves a democracy, but when a political party has a two thirds majority vote over the country and the floor crossing policiy undermines the strength of my vote, you have to ask yourself how democratic are we? At least now with one province controlled by a different party we are moving in a positive direction.