Daily Dispatch
NEC’s sacrifice: the people of SA
ONE has to have some pity for the secretary-general of the ANC, Gwede Mantashe. In the aftermath of an unprecedented call for President Jacob Zuma to step down – one which emanated from the highest level of the ANC – it fell to Mantashe to offer a rational explanation to the nation as to why the ANC’s national executive committee opted to support its highly compromised and deeply problematic leader.
It has after all, been a year of rolling scandals – all of them featuring Zuma, each growing more catastrophic than the previous drama and culminating in the astonishing bundle of evidence which indicates that presidential prerogatives have been outsourced or usurped.
Add to that the ANC’s local government election disaster and Mantashe’s task yesterday was never going to be easy.
To succeed he would have needed to give an extremely nimble performance and for the audience to be extremely gullible.
Mantashe gave us a rather clumsy dance that sought to downplay and deflect attention from the core issue of interest for almost every South African – in or outside the ANC.
He attempted to suggest that the unprecedented call by an ANC heavyweight – the Minister of Tourism Derek Hanekom – for the state president to step down was not such big deal.
Within the NEC there was no such thing as a minister or any such position, he said. Indeed, everyone was on the same level, be they “a gardener” or whoever.
This argument is too inadequate to entertain. As is Mantashe’s suggestion that the massive cleavages, reaching from the bottom of the ANC to its highest levels, are in essence the delusionary constructs of the media and that Zuma is the victim of “a negative narrative”.
In fact, it is unlikely that Mantashe himself believed much of what he had to say yesterday, considering the seniority of the line of ANC heavyweights who have now put their names and their necks on the line in an effort to expose the diversion South Africa has taken thanks to the Zuma presidency.
It is also difficult to believe that the NEC sincerely believes its own conclusion that the National Democratic Revolution is still on track – especially after Mantashe himself confirmed that they had been provided with the State of Capture report by the previous public protector Thuli Madonsela, which elaborates on the relationship between the Zuma and the Gupta families, including problematic dealings with Eskom.
The question then, is why the members of the NEC would act in this way – in a manner that imperils their own country and the future of their own children, a manner that defies rational behaviour.
The answer is simple: too many NEC members have a vested interest in keeping Zuma in place. There are simply not enough who are sufficiently courageous, honest or upright to stand up for truth and justice and do the blindingly obvious and very necessary right thing.
Mantashe failed hopelessly yesterday to convince the not-so-gullible South African populace that the NEC had good reason to continue backing Zuma. But then this task was impossible from the start.