Mighty ANC falling: Beyond the Magashule-ramaphosa contest
Sometimes the ancestors are considerate enough to give us a glimpse of the looming end. The ancestral missive in this regard may be delivered to us via a tragic black and white movie-like dream or through a series of incidents and accidents, which become “curiouser and curiouser” by the day, as Alice once remarked in Wonderland.
Over the past few months, it seems that the ANC has been visited by much madness and some extraordinarily strange behaviour. In recent weeks, chilling recordings of moments in the NEC (national executive committee) and similar meetings have been shared liberally and strategically leaked on social media. In some Mpumalanga branch general meetings, there has been reports of flying chairs and dead bodies.
Earlier this year, former president Jacob Zuma dared and baited the Zondo Commission and the Constitutional Court to authorise his arrest. His “troops” are awaiting the police at Nkandla.
Most of us, arame skepsels, cannot wrap our ordinary minds around the quadrillion rand, allegedly gifted to us all by an Asian entity, which loves us – “White Spiritual Boy”.
But alas, according to Tokyo Sexwale, the money was being stolen even before it landed on our shores.
Just before, during and after his rather incredible five-year suspension from the ANC, former ANC strong man Supra Mahumapelo was seen singing and dancing with a level of joie de vivre last seen when he was still premier. Many are wondering whether it is normal for a man recently sentenced to supervision by former president Thabo Mbeki to be singing so heartily and dancing so vigorously, “and so on and so forth and stuff like that”, as Mbeki likes to say.
But perhaps the most bizarre has been the behaviour of suspended ANC secretary-general. Ace Magashule has refused to step aside. So, he was suspended – the first-ever ANC secretary-general to be suspended. Of all the senior “losers” of the 2017 ANC elective conference, Magashule has been the most recalcitrant and the least able to “move on”. He seems to have left his soul at Nasrec, unable to see beyond the pain of the “loss” of Nasrec.
Instead of seeing his election into the SG position as an olive branch and a unity mandate, he seems to have interpreted it as a licence to wage a war of attrition against the “victors” of Nasrec all throughout the fiveyear term.
His frequent reference to Zuma as “the president” and to Ramaphosa as “Cyril” is more than the proverbial Freudian slip. This week, a viral clip of Magashule speaking on the phone has emerged.
In it he is heard saying: “Nothing is going on with me, I am still the secretary-general, I have suspended, eh eh, the NEC has suspended Cyril…”
This brings us to the most Trumpian aspect of Magashule’s behaviour during this week. After receiving his letter of suspension, he proceeded to appeal to himself against his own suspension, an appeal he seems to have upheld single-handedly, which is why he was able to unsuspend himself before proceeding to suspend Cyril Ramaphosa restrospectively and vengefully, in the name of the NEC.
Thank God he stopped short of suspending Jessie Duarte, Pule Mabe and Paul Mashatile. Magashule seems to be of the view that the decision to suspend him violates ANC policies and constitution. He also seems to think that it violates the constitution of the land. I would be surprised if he does not head both to the streets to mobilise popular support and to the courts of the land for relief.
In his best-selling book How the Mighty Fall, Jim Collins suggests five stages of decline that come ahead of the fall of an organisation. These stages might as well be applied to the decline of leaders and personalities: 1. Hubris born of success. 2. Undisciplined pursuit of more. 3. Denial of risk and peril. 4. Grasping for salvation. 5. Capitulation to irrelevance and death.
The biggest ANC factions are suspended between stages four and five. The ANC is desperately trying to snap out of the zone of decline. The hope is that the step-aside resolution will either kickstart the renewal of the organisation or at least create enough of the impression of renewal to dupe the electorate. That way, the fall, may be postponed, for five more years.
Nothing is going on with me, I am still the secretarygeneral