Skills before colour

WHEN politicians fail to deliver, I tend to blame those who voted for that person and party.

Voters must grasp that throughout history, leaders in general and politicians specifically cannot be trusted. Ironically, as soon as students are able to choose subjects, history is the first subject dropped. Thus we repeat the same mistakes.

The example that the Western Cape ANC has not stopped fighting for 20 years is familiar.

Over decades, coloured leaders like Allan Boesak, Chris Nissen, Ebrahim Rasool, Marius Fransman and others were removed to set various agendas.

On ANC benches in the City of Cape Town, there are a few coloureds left and not a single white person.

How the ANC expects success from this picture is ridiculous.

As a former chairperson of an ANC branch, I have established that policy conferences are a joke and serve only to secure “slate politics” where the dominant group secures absolute power and then guts the remainder.

Since the shenanigans in the ANC have paralysed the organisation in the Western Cape, the ANC as an opposition in the City of Cape Town is a shadow of its former self.

What is required is for the ANC to recruit skilled people regardless of colour. Filling seats inside council or at a provincial policy conference is meaningless when those seated are unable to deliver services. Most DA councillors can run rings around ANC councillors as many DA councillors have usable and contextual skills, as they are regularly evaluated and understand the general narrative.

For any democracy to exist and for transparency to be maintained, a seasoned and skilled opposition is required. As long as the ANC in the Western Cape behave like children they are doomed to failure.

What is trending in the ANC regionally is a microcosm of what the ANC is experiencing nationally

In the words of the wise, “the ANC has to check itself before it wrecks itself ”. Cllr Yagyah Adams Cape Muslim Congress