Crashing the party

PERHAPS it is a fitting tribute to what the day has become that the lead-up to the ANC’s birthday celebrations has been dominated by a controversy over alcohol. The now-overturned decision of the Gauteng Liquor Board to extend trading hours for liquor traders in order to accommodate ANC supporters who were expected to party up a storm this weekend highlights all that is wrong with the country’s political elite.

January 8 used to be an important date on the political agenda as the party used the birthday celebration to outline its agenda for the coming year, but over the past few years it has degenerated into a big bash with no real political meaning.

Given that the ANC went through a rough 2016 — losing several metros to the opposition and seeing its share of the national vote decline sharply — most would have imagined that the 105-year-old former liberation movement would use today’s event to conduct some introspection.

But if Friday’s remarks by its leader, President Jacob Zuma, are anything to go by, expect little change in attitude from the party’s January 8 statement that will be issued later today.

Speaking on Soweto’s famous Vilakazi Street, Zuma told supporters to treat the day like Christmas as it was similar to the day Christ was born.

“The birth of Jesus, who came to free people of sin, is like the birth of the ANC, who freed the people from oppression,” Zuma said.

It is precisely this kind of nonsense favoured by Zuma that is turning many South Africans away from the party of Nelson Mandela.

Other party leaders may grin and bear it in the belief that Zuma’s term will end soon. But for voters, his utterances may be enough evidence that the party has run out of messages that can help take South Africa forward.