SA deserves a new offering, not a morally spent governing party
Myth of warring ANC factions must be debunked
When you are desperate for good news, you might convince yourself that a myth is reality. The myth of two contrasting ANC factions must be exposed.
We are so desperate to believe that the ANC is not wholly rotten that a lot of our political debate frames the internal ANC battle as one between the good and the bad guys.
The good guys are presumed to be President Cyril Ramaphosa and his friends. They, apparently, are committed to constitutionalism. They exist for the singular purpose of creating a better life for all. That is why we should all say nice things about our smiling president and support his attempt to animate the rule of law and improve affairs of the state after years of capture
The other faction, so this myth goes, consists of a bunch of constitutional delinquents – from former president Jacob Zuma, who wants to rule from the political grave, to dodgy party secretary-general Ace “Eish” Magashule, who pisses on the party’s constitution and cannot be trusted to care for the country’s constitution.
You just need to read Pieter-louis Myburgh’s magisterial offering, Gangster State, to know how dangerous Magashule is to our democracy. Despite many threats, he has yet to sue the investigative reporter for his excellent evidence-informed take down.
So, we are urged to support the good guys in fighting the bad guys because our democracy requires us to do just that. It is in our collective self-interest, regardless of all other ideological and class-related differences we might have.
I want to urge South Africans, as well as journalists and pundits, to stop regarding this framework as true. It is not. We want it to be true for psychopolitical reasons.
Simply put, we desperately wish to live in a country in which the governing party, in the absence of excellent alternatives to it, can be fixed. But you cannot begin to talk about solutions to a problem if you have not been honest about the true nature and size of the problem.
It is a false dichotomy to imagine there are forces of good and evil fighting for the soul of the ANC. The whole lot of them are utterly unimpressive as a collective. The ANC is institutionally culpable for the hot mess the country is in.
The so-called good guys have been silent or in cahoots, variously, with the worst of their comrades for years. Why did they not speak up before? Why did they not leave a morally bankrupt ANC and start a party that is more faithful to the historical mission of the liberation movement?
Ramaphosa, furthermore, was parachuted back into the ANC at Mangaung without even uttering a word as to why he should be deputy president. It was all about slate politics with no regard for the much-punted bottom-up democratic processes within the party in which the branches are meant to be persuaded to vote for you as an elected leader.
Ramaphosa did not even make a case for his return into the top six. What kind of role-modelling of democratic culture is that?
He was deputy to the man the party now wants us all to see as anomalous to the values of the ANC. That is balderdash. Zuma is the ANC. Magashule is the ANC. Deputy President David Mabuza is ANC. The ANC cannot divorce itself from the most senior constitutional delinquents. It enabled them to continue to ruin the state.
The party also benefited from state capture directly. If anything, Ramaphosa should take more explicit responsibility for state capture on behalf of the ANC than he did with his feeble linguistic footwork at the Zondo Commission.
There is, in fact, only one ANC. The bottom line is that the ANC, as a governing political party, is morally spent. Do not be fooled by the fact that Ramaphosa, and the likes of ministers Naledi Pandor, Ebrahim Patel, Tito Mboweni, and others, are media darlings. They are collectively responsible for the economic, social, and political crises we are facing, from Marikana to a population not vaccinated against Covid-19. We need a new offering.
Cyril should take more responsibility for state capture