Gabriel Makin talks to Mlondi Mdluli, a 28-year-old economist, a DA MP, and the party’s new spokesperson on small business development, about the day-to-day reality of being a Member of Parliament, the committees where ministers actually get grilled, and what changes when the ANC can no longer do whatever it likes. They cover the VAT battle, the Parliament building that is still not rebuilt after a fire, the ANC’s push on NHI, expropriation, and the Water Bill, why Mlondi thinks his own department shouldn’t exist, the township economy the state keeps failing, and whether the DA can stop the MKP and the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal on 4 November.