Now that another coalition has failed in Johannesburg, ordinary South Africans have to start thinking about a plan B beyond politics. It’s now clear that even if the ANC falls significantly below 50% in the national vote in 2024, the ego, greed and strategic ineptitude of the opposition can still keep them in power. That means that all the problems associated with an ANC administration will likely remain with us.
The first thing that we should address is that a weakened ANC government is still better than an ANC government that is comfortably in power. If the party has to share power with other parties this is still better than their controlling the legislature and executive on their own. The mere fact of having to negotiate with parties like the Patriotic Alliance, DA, ActionSA, and others will tend to moderate their worst impulses, so an opposition vote is not wasted in that sense. The exception of course is an ANC that just needs EFF votes to stay in power, that would be worse than the ANC running things on its own.
The best way to make an ANC/EFF alliance unlikely is to empower the non-EFF opposition parties that have demonstrated an ability to take away votes from the ANC. These parties are the IFP and ActionSA. Hopefully these parties can reduce the ANC share of the vote enough to make an ANC/EFF coalition an impossibility.
Better days
Long before 2024 however, everyone who wants to see better days for South Africa has to do two things, first they have to determine to stay in this country no matter how bad it gets. The difference between the countries that eventually recover and those that don’t is the prevalence of the right ideas in general society. South Africa is blessed in this regard with our strong liberal tradition, older than even African nationalism. We have a large minority of people who understand individual liberty.
If South Africa loses its liberals, it’s unlikely to ever recover. It will just keep slipping further and further into poverty and lawlessness. This is exemplified by Zimbabwe which seems unable to break out of its death spiral. The people with the good ideas have all fled. It also helps if the people with good ideas are also part of the productive segment of society, which brings us to the second point.
South Africans will need to set up parallel structures that are small enough to not be threatening to the central government. It starts with taking care of your and your family’s basic needs like water, food, security, and power. Just doing that can be a very expensive exercise so savings and the means of protecting the value of these savings will be required. Simply saving as much as you can is something that everyone who earns an income can do and it will become extremely important as the country collapses.
Setting up these parallel structures requires collaboration with the private sector, both formal and informal. It requires working with the people in your community. And it requires knowing the importance of institutions, how to set them up, how to maintain them, and how to grow them. Many other people in South Africa can learn from the good work being done by the likes of Solidarity and Afriforum, although for those of us just starting out, we won’t be able to operate at the scale those other organisations are able to operate at.
Community work
The best way to start working within your community is identifying organisations that already do work in the community and are trusted, such as churches and schools. After ensuring you and your family have their basic needs taken care of, the next step is helping existing community organisations do the same. This is the quickest way to build trust within your community, it will not be your guns that defend you from the central government but your neighbours whether they are armed or not, by refusing to collaborate with a destructive regime.
Of course, for those who cannot afford the sacrifice all of this will take, financially and otherwise, moving to another country is probably your best bet. But even then one must be careful, the entire world has entered an era of instability. The assumptions that once held just a few months ago no longer seem as certain as they once were. Who could have predicted that European countries would be suffering from energy insecurity at the same time as South Africa was? Who could have predicted the lockdowns and the damage they caused? Think carefully about your next step and don’t stop learning, it can save you and your family’s lives.
After having secured your place, just keep promoting freedom and the ideas necessary for any society to prosper. Whether this is done directly by speaking out or done by funding people and organisations that share your values and speak out on your behalf or joining such organisations. Eventually we know that statism will fail, in whatever form it takes, whether it is socialism, fascism, or nationalism, or any related ideology. When that time comes perhaps people will be desperate enough to choose liberty.