It seems that South Africa is full of political experts. Who knew?
What a country, though. Who could forget when it was full of microbiologists and vaccinologists not so long ago? And then, just after that, specialists on the history and geopolitical situation in the ex-Soviet Republics and then the same for the Middle East.
That’s the sort of pivoting and agility management that you only find in this remarkable population.
Who knows to what we will turn our collective hands tomorrow?
Right now, it’s spin doctoring of the highest order:
Explaining why this party’s 0.3% is actually a better result than that party’s 22.3%.
How that party winning this area doesn’t actually count for anything, because [stereotypical voter demographic] was always going to vote that way.
Calling for the head of a party they don’t even care about, while studiously ignoring the fact that they outperformed everyone’s wildest predictions.
Just making everyone aware that it’s someone else’s fault that the 68% of the population that support your single policy party’s single policy mysteriously morphed into 0.21% on election day.
Still, all this mental manoeuvering does at least distract us from the rather unpleasant thought of an ANC coalition with the EFF (ANC-lite) or MK (ANC-heavy), running what’s left of the country (into the ground).
And it’s also not leaving much space for wondering where local political phoenix has-been Patricia de Lille is going to emerge this time around. But then again, who cares?