We need service delivery, not ANC’s internal wrangles

Barely hours after his release from prison, former Nelson Mandela Bay councillor Andile Lungisa set the media abuzz with a no-holds-barred press conference that loosed the proverbial cat among ANC pigeons by blasting its leadership with withering scorn. Lungisa accused President Cyril Ramaphosa of driving the legal woes facing his predecessor, Jacob Zuma. Then he zoomed in to provincial level, describing premier Oscar Mabuyane’s executive as “illiterate dolls with no clear political background”.

Party regional leaders were quick to denounce Lungisa’s statements as malicious, with ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi saying: “No member of the ANC can say such things about a sitting president of the ANC unprovoked. Attacking any member of the ANC is bringing the organisation into disrepute.”

Clearly the daggers have been drawn.

True, Lungisa may have brought his party into disrepute but it is common knowledge that this kind of behaviour has been tolerated many times within the ruling party. In an interview in 2017 former president Thabo Mbeki reflected on the 2007 Polokwane conference. He said one of the problems with the ANC was the “habit of telling lies” to achieve set objectives.

Mbeki said young people, especially former ANCYL Julius Malema, were fed lies by people they “had no reason to disbelieve.” Subsequently we have heard several versions on why and how Mbeki was ousted. The truth will never be known. It has been sacrificed at the ANC’s altar.

Since then the politics of lying has been a zero-sum game for the ruling party. The ANC created this culture of mudslinging and it is likely to escalate to a higher gear towards the party’s national general council meeting next year.

Under normal circumstances, internal party politics should not be a concern for outsiders. However, as the ruling party what happens within the ANC tends to affect service delivery, with terrible consequences for SA’s citizens.

For a long time, municipalities such as NMB have been in a state of paralysis as party factions slug it out.

As ANC politicians unfurl their ambitious game-plans, it is our hope that outside of their political structures they will put the needs of SA’s people first.

Residents in this province are desperate for water, sanitation, roads, education and healthcare. It is these issues that we want to see dominate our discourse, not party spats.

The ANC created this culture of mudslinging and it is likely to escalate to a higher gear towards the party’s national general council meeting next year