Get off your moral high horse, comrades

It’s cowardly for members to show contempt for the ANC leadership, writes

Morgan Phaahla.

With the ANC elective conference around the corner, one can only wish for secretary-general Gwede Mantashe to be retained.

He was unfazed to close in on ill-discipline from within the ruling party. Never have we seen senior ANC members behaving like free agents, casting aspersions on the state president and bringing the name of the organisation into disrepute.

But Mantashe was firm to rebuke those who hold on to moral conscience. Hopefully, he would challenge the conference to get tough on this emerging neoliberal tendency before it contaminates our glorious movement.

We cannot allow so-called conscience to supersede the political significance of the oath of membership. It would open a floodgate of deployees colluding with counter-revolutionary forces.

It’s cowardly for members to show contempt for the leadership and publicly defy a party directive. Seemingly, they’re above the party constitution. They ought to be locked out of the movement and excommunicated.

If truth be told, there’s no denial that there are challenges. The unbridled corruption, state capture and Marikana shootings are the biggest liabilities tarnishing the image of the ANC.

And there’s a great deal of commitment to get to the bottom of this without hurting our unity. The reality is: ill-discipline and divisions distract the party from making progress on that front.