CR lost support of a generation
Dihlabeng mayor Lindiwe Makhalema seems to have opened an ANC Pandora’s box with her Cyril Ramaphosa sellout statement.
The ANC, which was toothless for years when Jacob Zuma was president, has now found its teeth – how ironic.
Why is the ANC now so concerned about a rot it allowed to be a culture among its members?
The reality is that people don’t know Ramaphosa.
The ANC has to triple its mobilisation efforts every time the man is in town or township, he is not a magnet like Zuma and Nelson Mandela.
Ramaphosa lost a generation who could identify with him, to be a base to build on, when he went into business and did not even attend Mandela’s inauguration nor Thabo Mbeki’s.
The generation after his should, therefore, be forgiven.
There is no shred of evidence to make him resonate with the current dominant generations in the ANC.
In the ANC, generations need to know you were there for them, if not with them, during their trying times.
Ramaphosa has not been there with any of the active generations dominating the ANC through branches and regions.
He led sellout Codesa negotiations and emerged as a beneficiary of a business deal for the ANC politically connected elite in a BEE scheme.
People have not forgotten and Ramaphosa has not shared a single billion with the poor to move them out of poverty.
A salary share to a moneyed foundation does not count, only direct contribution to poor families without bread winners count.
Thuma mina and the new deal are not getting traction from the ground within the ANC in the Eastern Cape.
Perhaps it’s time for the ANC, especially its president, to be a movement that takes its base (its members) seriously and listens to them first.
Second, ask the SACP to mind its affairs and allow the ANC to handle its internal matters.
Third, the ANC should take disciplinary action against NEC members like Bheki Cele, who attacked in public his own fellow NEC member, Ace Magashule, when he reminded ANC leaders that they were all given a five-year mandate as the NEC, nothing more.
The Ramaphobia movement will surely gain traction going into next year if the ANC adopts a personality cult when dealing with the rot within its membership.
It is evident that the centre does not hold in the Ramaphosa-led leadership as generations are struggling to connect with him, he seems worse than the aloof former president Mbeki.
He has not shown leadership in tackling the Eastern Cape conference problem, but one should not be surprised because Marikana could not be resolved by Ramaphosa.
Bad blood seems to follow him.