Now that the elections are all over bar the shouting, I must say that one of the things that leapt out at me was that none of the major political parties has a firm ideology, and that is why politicians seeking power flit like light-seeking moths from one to the other.
This lack of any major differentiation between the two main political coalitions might also be part of the reason that 36 per cent of the country’s eligible voters stayed away and we ended up with the result that we got instead of perhaps a markedly different one.
In Kenya, I, for one, would love to see a party based on the ideologies espoused by that great underground newspaper that only real radicals read: Pambana.
It spoke accepting no apologies for oppression or thievery and forcefully representing the truth as seen by the majority poor, dispossessed Kenyans who have hitherto been so fully ignored.
For me, a political party based on such lines would be very attractive. I would happily join and campaign for such a party.
Here in South Africa, however imperfect, the main political parties have ideologies that differentiate them from each other. And these, in turn, attract supporters and followers and come through in the positions held by political leaders.
So you have the African National Congress, which, like its peers formed at a time when Africans were seeking liberation from colonialism, is rooted in African nationalism.
Generally, this could be said to be the same ideology Kanu had in Kenya, at least up until the point when ideology stopped being significant to members and leaders.
Then you have the main Opposition, Democratic Alliance, which, while as its name suggests, was formed as an alliance of parties that thought along the same lines, portrays itself as an economic and socially liberal party.
Then there is the Economic Freedom Fighters, which may have began life as a splinter group of the ANC but has since carved itself a niche as a radical Marxist Leninist, Black ultranationalist, anti-white racism party.
There are other smaller parties, such as the Afrikaaner populism right-wing Freedom Front Plus, the social democratic environmentalist Good Party, the black, right-leaning anti-foreigner Action SA, the socially conservative Christian democrats of the ACDP, and the Islamic democrats of the Al Jama-ah party.
In a sense, the political parties of South Africa, on paper at least, tend to offer a varied menu that allows like-minded people to come together for a cause bigger than mere political power.
Of course, even as I write this, South African political parties, including some of the ones mentioned above, are busy working on a National Rainbow Coalition-type arrangement to see if they can get rid of the ANC at the polls in 2024.
It is early days yet, and the parties are still divided on a number of fronts. But for now, at least, they are all agreed that the ANC must go, and the only way to do this is to come together.
This will, of course, mean that some cherished ideals are jettisoned to accommodate the unity agenda, and while I can see why they think this is the way forward, they might want to see how it worked out for Kenya’s Narc.
Meanwhile, elements in the ANC appear to have smelt the coffee and are waking up to the possibility that they may need to cooperate with others if they are to hang onto power.
Reacting to talks of the ANC seeking out a policy on coalitions, a political analyst told me recently: “The ANC will never again be the way it was. The political lifespan of liberation movements tends to be affected by the institutionalisation of corruption, and the hegemony of the ANC has been dealt a blow. It is no longer a dominant party.”
He said the challenge would be that coalitions are a relatively new political phenomenon in South African politics and had so far proved unworkable because parties had a tendency to jump ship any time they were offered a sweeter deal. Sound familiar?