Gallery march confirms ANC’S confusion

I READ with total dismay intertwined with confusion about ANC leaders proclaiming that they emerged victorious from the march to the Goodman Gallery in Joburg.

How can they emerge victorious in a country they lead?

One emerges as a victor in a fight against an opponent. Besides the march being an embarrassment to the party and the country at large, who was the ANC fighting?

The march – a misplaced overreaction and waste of resources – confirms the view that the party is paranoid, arrogant, confused and delusional.

Doesn’t it know that a leader will never march against his or her subordinates, but will rather guide them in the most productive and constructive manner?

Is the Goodman Gallery an adversary? No, it is a job creator in a country under the leadership of the ANC.

This is no different to a parent marching against his or her children when they are perceived to have erred instead of applying corrective measures.

What the ANC has achieved and confirmed is confusion about the role they should be playing in rebuilding the country. Does it think it’s still banned and underground fighting some imaginary system?

Inadvertently the small victory it celebrates exposes the ANC’s waning power. Yes, because the current ANC is full of unfulfilled promises, a small victory is worth celebrating.

This is why our children have to get 30% to pass matric, why a 25% unemployment rate is not a problem along with the nonchalant approach to service delivery, crime, corruption and so on.

Now that the party is celebrating bullying a newspaper and the Goodman Gallery into removing the portrait, will they behave like the Fourth Plebian in Act 3, scene 3, of Julius Caesar and pluck the portrait out of our imaginations?

Their effort will never achieve their objective of removing the portrait but instead will instill fear in people, just like bullies who celebrate snatching lunchboxes from other children.