Submitted by Fana Marivate
In the early days of the new republic, after the battle for liberation had been won, the party was overwhelmingly strong. Its leader, a man whom posterity would acclaim as among the greatest statesmen his country has ever produced, ascended to the nascent republic’s presidency.
The party went from strength to strength. Their strength in the legislature exceeded two-thirds of that body. Their dominance was so complete that politics in the new republic was reduced to infighting within the party. In time, of course, the infighting formalised into two separate political parties.
Could one be describing events in the ANC since 1994? In fact, I refer here to Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican Party in the early years of the United States after the successful conclusion of the War of Independence. The bit in italics is quoted from an historical text.
Ultimately, the schism in Thomas Jefferson’s party gave birth to two parties whose rivalry characterises and indeed stabilises US politics to this day: the modern Democratic and Republican parties.
Whereas the monolith that garnered up to in excess of 80% of the vote in 1800s US was inherently unstable, the two legs on which US politics stands today have stabilised that nation’s politics since the middle of the 19th century.
Each has long accepted the right of the other to exist. Both feature in their election rosettes the red, white and blue colours that Mr Jefferson favoured for his party at its inception. And together they bind the centre of American politics.
How I wish history had the capacity to repeat itself!
Fana Marivate is an avid amateur historian and a South African voter
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