The politics of ‘me’

IN time, as the ANC loses authority, historians will deliberate, how it resulted.

Ibn Khaldun the father of social science born in Tunis in 1332, told about this behaviour in Al

Muqaddimah (Lessons and Archive of Early and Subsequent History).

When Jacob Zuma became president of the ANC, the demise of the ANC began. The golden era of Nelson Mandela retreated and the rainbow nation began its decline.

Mandela embodied our ability to forgive and did everything to generate reconciliation.

Thabo Mbeki, the philosopher, echoed the semblance of a professor as he trekked the world bidding to redress African suffering.

Mbeki reminded humanity of the injustice, the indignity of poverty and the debt owed to Africa since slavery. The world did not care and detested Mbekifor his panache.

Historians could argue that Zuma’s rise was a result of Mbeki’s failure to watch his political back.

Others will suggest that Mbeki’s passion with the moral high ground, reparations, his vision of an Africa free of imperial control and other global issues enraged western leaders and sealed his fate.

When Mbeki was recalled, no concern was given to the value of comrades as the ANC gutted itself. The ANC chose losing elections by instalments above reason and comradeship.

For example, when then Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool was recalled, the ANC knew they were cutting their “nose to spite their face”. Premier Lynne Brown waited for Helen Zille to relieve her of power. So began the ANC decline, as the party chose self-indulgence and egoism above ability and ethics.

ANC branches are undermining each other to score more reps at conference to ensure that their “man” gets the job.

There is limited concern for service delivery or nation building. It is the politics of “me” at the expense of the ANC’s long-term survival. Those who sustain this politics of greed cannot grasp how they are ruining the ANC.

In time, when the ANC is reduced to a minority party struggling to govern some poverty-stricken rural municipalities, it is vital to know how its decline resulted and who is liable.

Al Muqaddimah foretold that when the political elite embrace corruption at any cost, ethical decay becomes endemic, the Creator removes his Mercy and those in power tumble into history.

The ANC learnt little from the demise of the previous apartheid regime. The Creator gives to whom He pleases and takes from whom He pleases, when He pleases. We are all subject to the Creator’s will.