Zille unmoved by Zuma olive branch

Western Cape Premier Helen Zille has clearly rejected the overtures made by South African President Jacob Zuma to opposition parties during his inaugural address. In his opening speech Zuma called upon opposition parties to work with the government where there are areas of common interest and called upon the ruling party to be more open to criticism.

Within days the leader of the Democratic Alliance put any thoughts of a honeymoon period or temporary truce to bed as she let fly at the president with both barrels. In response to attacks on her choice of a provincial cabinet, Zille turned on Zuma’s lifestyle and its impact on HIV/Aids. She further suggested that he was putting his wives at risk and presenting a poor role model to our youth.

Fair comment?

Not if you consider that this debate had been aired ad nausea prior to the election, that Zuma had just extended an olive branch to her days before, that he was not one of those who criticised her choices and that the country was looking for positive direction after the mudslinging that passed as campaigning in the build-up to the vote.

This is now being followed by the Western Cape premier holding her opening address in the legislature prior to the president’s state of the nation address.

In terms of South African tradition the president would give his address first and the premiers some time thereafter.

While the Constitution does not prescribe the order that these have to take place and Zille, via her spokesperson, has defended the decision on the basis that they have a budget to complete before the end of June, this smacks of bloody-mindedness.

Whether the committees can be constituted or not or that the DA has to review an ANC budget, the fact is that in order to accommodate this convention or tradition the DA could, if they wished to, continue to work informally prior to the premier’s address.

At this point it appears that they are going head to head with the ANC on principle rather than picking their fights.

The problem with this approach is that you may well antagonise your constituency who would rather deal with issues as they crop up as opposed to seeking showdowns as a matter of course.

South Africans do not wish to spend every day of their existence electioneering.

They may well tire of never-ending confrontation sooner rather than later.