ANC will suffer its worst losses in 2019 if it does not listen to the masses

Supporters of both Cyril Ramaphosa and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma are engrossed in the short term almost to a point of near insanity.

It is rare to hear them seriously deliberate on the 2019 elections that will probably drastically change the political landscape of South Africa.

Let me go back to the period before the August 2016 municipal elections to make my point clear. A few months before those elections, a micro scenario of what is transpiring now within the ANC played itself out in Tshwane, a metro then run by the ANC.

The ANC crossed swords with the masses, mainly from Atteridgeville, when it chose to replace Kgosientsho “Sputla” Ramokgopa with Thoko Didiza. The ANC dug in its heels in favour of Didiza.

The residents went on the rampage, burnt buses and wreaked havoc. None of the opposing ANC sides ever fathomed out that there would be no ANC mayor after the poll. To them, the vote of the people was a given right they thought they already possessed.

The same scenario is playing itself out again. The ANC is putting too much energy into its internal wars, completely forgetting that come 2019, it is the public who will decide which party will run the government. The ANC, if not careful, will again suffer the consequences of burying its head in the sand like an ostrich. Don Shongwe Northcliff, Joburg