Dr Mamphela Ramphele reckons she can save all of us from the ANC. In fact she has sort of been doing this for quite a while now. That is if you take into consideration the anti-ANC vitriol in her texts and speeches.
She is also rumoured to have conceived some of the DA policies. At one stage it was widely reported that she is being courted by Helen Zille, the DA leader. So strong were the rumours of this courtship that some in the media circles predicted that Ramphele was in line for a prominent leadership position in the DA.
Everybody expected the announcement of Ramphele joining the desperate housewives of the DA - that was until Tony Leon broke the news that she was on a mission to found a new political party.
The rumours of Mamphele's political party has raised excitement within anti-ANC circles who in their naivette think she will succeed where many are facing the stack reality of the political wilderness where the likes of Julius Malema are roaming.
Any excitement on the envisaged party is misplaced as it will barely create waves, except in the already depleted opposition pool.
Mamphele and those who pull her strings need a lesson in the history of those suicidal enough to want to topple the darling of the South African masses, the ANC. As history will attest, their corpses litter the South African political landscape..
There was the PAC in 1958 which broke away from the ANC. Since its official formation on 6 April 1959 at the Orlando Communal Hall in Soweto, the PAC never amounted to anything substantive beyond opposition to everything ANC.
Since then there have been Rocky Malebane Metsing, Bantu Holomisa and recently, the duo of Patrick Lekota and Sam Shilowa.
Of all the ANC renegades, COPE was given more chance and indeed garned enough votes to be the third biggest party in the national assembly. This support has since fizzled out because of protracted battles between Lekota and Shilowa on who is the legitimate leader.
The failure of these renegades offers Ramphele and her backers, a lesson she dare not dismiss lightly - that she is on a Mission Impossible.
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