The Democratic Alliance's internal divisions have intensified after former leader John Steenhuisen alleged that Resolve Communications used its proximity to DA ministers in the Government of National Unity to benefit private clients. Resolve Executive Chairman Tony Leon has strongly denied the claims, calling them politically motivated and without evidence, while the ANC has called for an independent investigation into what it describes as possible "state capture" within the GNU.
South Africa has spent decades treating corruption as a moral biography of one party. The ANC became the symbol of everything that went wrong in the state. Cadre deployment. Patronage networks. Tender manipulation. The hollowing out of institutions.
It became easy to believe that corruption lived in one political home and that other parties were somehow immune. It became even easier to believe that corruption followed race, class or ideology. That it was cultural rather than structural.
This belief has shaped our politics. It has shaped how parties present themselves. It has shaped how voters judge them. It has shaped how the DA built its identity as the clean alternative. But the belief was always flawed. It was always too neat. It was always too comforting.
