Fixing ANC mess is no magic wand for SA

Anation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within … For the traitor appears no traitor; he speaks in the accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their garments, and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation; he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city; he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist.”

This Taylor Caldwell quote, controversially attributed to Cicero, Mark Antony’s nemesis, did the rounds among governing party members this weekend as the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) was meeting to discuss how to deal with corruption. Both dominant factions in the party would probably find the quote apt for these times.

The week of high drama started with the party’s national working committee endorsing the motion that members facing criminal charges either step aside or face suspension. Last Tuesday, ANC secretarygeneral Ace Magashule duly received his letter of suspension after failing to step aside. The letter came with detailed instructions on the “don’ts” during the six-month suspension. In effect, they tie his hands to his feet from behind, allowing him only to eat and watch the show unfold ahead of the ANC’s national general council — the midterm review meeting.

On Wednesday night, he fired back at his bête noir, Cyril Ramaphosa, claiming to have suspended the party leader. In the run-up to the weekend meeting of the NEC, both factions — Magashule’s (with Jacob Zuma as its ideological high priest) and Ramaphosa’s— went to war, briefing and counterbriefing the media. Last Friday, branches of the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal held a media conference, essentially casting the gauntlet at the feet of the NEC by throwing their weight behind Zuma and Magashule.

Magashule, who held a media briefing on Thursday, defied his suspension by attending the virtual NEC meeting before being thrown out. Since then the country has been drip-fed audio leaks of the discussions at the meeting. That there are deep divisions in the ANC is to state the obvious. What the leaks highlighted is the extent, nature and depth of these divisions and, of course, they gave voice to some of the protagonists.

On Monday afternoon a tired-looking Ramaphosa announced that the party would go on a retreat to work out its differences, and that Magashule’s deputy, Jessie Duarte, would step into his position over the next six months. Magashule was “advised” to apologise to members and structures for his “unauthorised Ramaphosa suspension” letter, failing which he would face disciplinary proceedings.

The dominant narrative is that the Ramaphosa faction has won. If the measure of success is the ouster, albeit temporarily, of Magashule, then maybe that is true. However, if the measure is whether Magashule’s faction has been decisively defeated and Ramaphosa can now implement his agenda, ANC members should think again.

Owing to his position in the ANC, Magashule’s suspension is a symbolically significant win for Ramaphosa. However, in the bigger political calculus, it is a small victory. After all, several provinces have yet to suspend scores of members implicated in corruption who have refused to step down.

It is doubtful that ANC chair Gwede Mantashe, a Ramaphosa ally, would have the guts to throw Zuma out of an NEC meeting, even though he is facing corruption charges and now a possible jail term. Zuma has defied the ANC for years, and provides a tried and tested playbook for the Magashule faction.

Forcing Magashule out of his Luthuli House office and the virtual ANC gatherings will not silence him; far from it, it grants him time to mobilise support in dark corners ahead of the national general council.

Tragically, entertaining though the ANC’s internal machinations are to outsiders, especially the millions of South Africans who have continued to vote for it over the years, they have little bearing on the resolution of SA’s myriad pressing problems.

A tactical win for

Ramaphosa at the weekend means little for the country: it doesn’t mean Covid-19 vaccines will be rolled out more quickly or efficiently, before a deadlier coronavirus variant breaks out; it doesn’t mean Ramaphosa will now urgently implement the economic reforms required to bolster the competitiveness of the economy; it doesn’t mean high-speed telecoms spectrum will be allocated soon; it doesn’t mean SAA will take off before spring; it doesn’t mean financially distressed stateowned enterprises will be speedily turned around by their weak boards and management teams; and crucially it doesn’t mean Ramaphosa will finally assemble an effective cabinet to help him avoid another lost decade.

The weekend’s stormy meeting raises one critical question: is the ANC actually the traitor within the gates referred to by Caldwell?

HE SPEAKS IN THE ACCENTS FAMILIAR TO HIS VICTIMS, AND HE WEARS THEIR FACE AND THEIR GARMENTS

Taylor Caldwell Author

● Dludlu, a former Sowetan editor, is executive for strategy and public affairs at the Small Business Institute.