Sona mess shows ANC ineptitude

The ANC transition is in crisis and the country will bear the brunt of it. Poor leadership and indecision are costly.

The postponement of the State of the Nation Address (Sona), a highlight on the national calendar which marks the opening of parliament and serves as the president’s statement of intent for the year, is an indication of a deepening impasse between the ANC and President Jacob Zuma.

For weeks, the ANC has been dilly-dallying over the future of its former president. As the moment of the Sona drew nearer, the implications of the ruling party’s indecision became all the more apparent.

National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete was given no option but to act following the ANC top six’s failure to convince Zuma to vacate his public office.

The governing party’s handling of this matter portrays an organisation in disarray.

Resolving the situation of two centres of power was always going to be ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa’s biggest test.

In particular, how Ramaphosa deals with a predecessor who is at the centre of scandals and facing the prospects of being criminally charged for corruption was always going to be the yardstick to measure his aptitude to lead not only the ANC but the country.

And so far, the ANC under Ramaphosa has demonstrated that it is not up to the task.

Accelerating Zuma’s departure should have been the first order of business for the ANC national executive committee (NEC).

Instead, the matter was not tabled for discussion last month at the first meeting of the party’s highest decision-making body between conferences.

Instead, the NEC skirted around the issue as if to deny the existence of the problem altogether.

The new leadership has tried to strike a delicate balance between maintaining unity through diplomacy and stamping its authority by demonstrating its willingness and capacity to act to clean out the rot that has enveloped both party and state.

But walking this tightrope cannot lull the divisions and keep the deep fissures at bay for too long.

Resolving this impasse calls for decisive action. The only way the ANC can redeem itself for allowing this crisis to deepen is for the NEC to recall Zuma without further delay.