The ANC’S leaders fear ‘cold’ exit
Knowing when to leave is difficult for executives in political and corporate office. Some, if not most, who’ve made it their life’s work to build their companies into successful corporations are terrified of irrelevance, or no longer being needed.
Peter Staude, the former Tongaathulett chief executive or Markus Jooste of Steinhoff infamy would of course have different reasons for holding on, given the scale of fraud committed under their watch.
Holding on too long leads to stale ideas poisoning regeneration. Those executives who do manage to let go by reading the room more often than not leave a legacy of their work that will live into the future.
It’s hubris to think an institution will not be able to prosper without one’s own hands on the wheel.
The inability to let go is just as present in politics, with China’s Xi Jinping looking to extend his reign into another decade, if not more. With the war against Ukraine turning negative for Russia at the moment, one has to wonder if Vladimir Putin thinks back to that brief interlude where he left the running of “his” country to his deputy and asks whether it was best he left the stage for good.
The ANC suffers from a ruling elite, who — no matter their age or or how well the party has served their personal interests — hold on in fear of the “cold” that is promised for anyone outside the party.
This week, the party’s 80-yearold former president, Jacob Zuma, raised his hand to serve as chair with Nkosasana Dlamini-zuma, 73, as president. One has to wonder what new energy they would they bring to the rapidly declining party.
The same can be asked of 66-yearold Zweli Mkhize, the former health minister whose name has been tarnished by a corruption scandal involving personal protective equipment during the Covid-19 pandemic. What they clearly fear is the cold. Mkhize contests for position as he faces criminal prosecution. Being politically relevant helps to delay it, at the very least, as we’ve seen. This week, his name has been put up by the ANC in Kwazulu-natal as a contender for the presidency at the ANC elective conference.
Clean governance is not held in high regard in the country’s secondmost populous province. The province and a few others once backed Jacob Zuma’s rise to the party presidency in 2007, despite the guilty judgement against Schabir Shaik for having a corrupt relationship with him just two years earlier.
Whether or not Mkhize topples Cyril Ramaphosa in a few months’ time, it is in his own best interest to remain a factor in the ANC’S political future for as long as possible.
There are many others who need the cloak of the ANC to shield them from accountability, squeezing out the prospect of meritocracy in the party, which equates to a continuation of stale ideas around the economy, and especially Eskom.