ANC poll battles bad for SA

The ANC fails to realise that electing its own office bearers two years before national elections has a very detrimental effect on service delivery.

The ruling ANC is in full electioneering mode. To an outsider this might seem very strange considering that national elections are about two years away, in 2024.

But this period of internal battles, mudslinging, innuendo and even slander has become the norm in ANC internal election battles.

Why do these internal battles concern SA citizens? Because for the past three decades it has been these battles that have determined who the country’s leaders are.

It is not surprising that Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has thrown her weight behind the lingering rumours that the formation of the Congress of the People (Cope), the ruling party breakaway which was formed when former president Thabo Mbeki was recalled from the country’s highest office, was spearheaded by high-ranking party officials like former finance minister Trevor Manuel.

Sisulu has called for an investigation into the allegations and this has already resulted in the former finance minister issuing a warning that he needs journalist Dr JJ Tabane to withdraw the allegations or be sued.

Why does it matter who formed Cope? Because that would show the duplicity of the current ruling faction, led by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

So, it comes as no surprise that former president Jacob Zuma, who at 80 years of age should be enjoying his Sundays in retirement with his grandchildren, is hosting Twitter livestreamed meetings with his supporters.

The urgent message that he had to get across? The ANC “has not made sense since 2017” which, coincidentally, is the year his presidency of the ruling party ended.

It would appear he took all sense with him when he left.

But the biggest salvo he has to throw was “next time we need to talk about spies in the ANC, spies who have been elevated to positions of power in the ANC”.

There is nothing new in the allegations that the former president is making about spies in the ruling party. He has been threatening to release some sort of damning information about some of his comrades even way before he became president.

There are no spies that will be revealed here. It is all just electioneering, making the Ramaphosa faction look bad because “it is in bed with white capital and is full of spies”.

It is not as though that faction isn’t fighting back. It is and has thus far managed to keep the biggest contenders for ANC leadership at bay through the step-aside resolution that says those facing criminal charges should not stand for office.

Suspended ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule and former health minister Zweli Mkhize have been kept somewhat quiet by the stepaside resolutions. And even as they fight back to make themselves heard, they do so cautiously.

What the ANC has failed to realise over the years is that electing their own office bearers two years before national elections has a very detrimental effect on service delivery.

They will spend 2022 calling each other spies and jostling for positions within the party, creating even more bitter and deeper factions within the party.

If the Ramaphosa renewal faction wins and he is re-elected president, they will spend 2023 forging some pretend unity to fight the national election the following year.

Ramaphosa and his supporters know that, should he lose the internal election race, he’ll spend 2023 fighting to stay in office for the remainder of his term.

The biggest losers are South African voters because for two years, service delivery takes a back seat to the internal fights.

The best thing that could happen is for the ruling party elections to happen the same year as the country’s national elections.