The responsibility of an opposition party is, well, to oppose. To hold the majority party’s feet to the fire, to criticize, to represent those who do not feel represented by the party in power. In South Africa there is no doubt that Helen Zille and the Democratic Alliance (DA) take their responsibility seriously (even if I maintain that it is only a mater of time before the Congress of the People supplants the DA). But there is something off-putting about Zille’s complaints about President Jacob Zuma’s much ballyhooed “hotline,” which is intended to improve government responsiveness. Zille’s assertion that her party was unable to lodge a complaint on the hotline for two weeks is at best disingenuous grandstanding. An opposition party, especially the main opposition party, is part of government. The idea that Zille or her party needs to call a hotline explicitly aimed at fielding public complaints to address problems is absurd.
That said, a reporter from Independent on Saturday had similar complaints and it is clear that the merits of the DA’s argument are sound even if Zille & Co.’s approach amounts to little more than populist demagoguery. Why Zille did not simply discuss the hotline in the abstract rather than feign that the hotline provides the DA with its access to government is perplexing, because as I say, her argument has merit. It is her approach that undermines her case. And in politics, the merits of an argument oftentimes take a backseat to its presentation, especially when the presentation is smarmy and misleading.