ANC’S HYPOCRISY READILY EXPOSED
IT DID not take that long to expose the ANC’s hypocrisy in how it selectively applies its step-aside resolution following the conviction of women’s league president Bathabile Dlamini for perjury.
The party has yet to publicly announce that it is taking action against her. We recently learnt through news reports that it intends asking her to resign, failing which may lead to disciplinary proceedings. However, only being charged was enough for the ANC to suspend its secretary-general Ace Magashule, who this week lost his bid to have the case against him quashed.
He must now have his day in court. The “rush” in suspending him, however, now raises a number of issues, one being that the party has failed to act consistently, especially in light of the Dlamini matter.
Other than Magashule, no other high-profile members have been suspended despite a long list of ANC senior members facing serious charges, including former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede.
This may give Magashule’s supporters more reason to believe that his suspension was a witch hunt to get him out of the powerful office – something backers of President Cyril Ramaphosa would have been worried about leading up to this year’s crucial elective conference, where he is set to contest for a second term.
Whatever the political reasons for putting him on ice, the party has a lot to answer about how it applies its rules, especially the contentious stepaside resolution. While Magashule was barred from attending NEC meetings, the same cannot be said about former president Jacob Zuma, who was convicted of contempt of court and served time before being released on medical parole. By applying resolutions selectively, the ANC runs the risk of further weakening the same rules that some of its members have contended were altered to strengthen one faction over the other.
The road to the 55th elective congress in December is bound to be a bumpy one. There will be casualties along the way. As the adage goes: “When two elephants fight, it’s the grass that suffers the most.”
South Africans, especially the poor who have had to put up with so much under the ANC, must not be the grass when its factions go head-to-head.
They have suffered enough and deserve much better than this.