Sunday Times columnist Prof William Gumede argues that political parties should either be willing to introspect after the recent local government elections or “close shop”.

He appeared on Eusebius on TimesLIVE, responding to a sustained critique of his recent work by veteran ANC leader and activist Mavuso Msimang.

Msimang had accused Gumede of “intellectual paucity” for speculating about the reasons why many voters had this time not chosen to vote ANC.

Gumede inferred from the recent electoral outcome that voters intentionally sought to bring about coalitions, which Msimang thinks is an unsubstantiated claim too many pundits are making.

This dialectic between these well-known thinkers is, at its core, about whether the ANC may be able to reverse its electoral fortunes, or whether a new era of coalitions will take root at provincial and national levels.