Can the ANC save itself from rot?

The saddest aspect of the exposure of the vast state capture network is that, seeing the enormous amount of taxpayer money to be looted – and the ease with which it can be done – many in the ANC would have thought: that could be me.

That obvious temptation of riches beyond the dreams of many could be the biggest stumbling block for the well-meaning attempts by the ANC leadership to save their organisation from being recorded by posterity as a criminal enterprise.

Party policy head Jeff Radebe admitted yesterday that “careerists and opportunists” see the ruling party as the road to riches… and they are prepared to do what it takes to get close to the trough, including assassinating their rivals.

That’s without the ongoing destructive faction fighting – primarily between those loyal to President Cyril Ramaphosa and his “new dawn” dreams; and those loyal to former president Jacob Zuma and his campaign to achieve “radical economic transformation”.

Radebe sketched a party which has lost its way – and lost the confidence of the people of South Africa in the process – by failing to make the transition from liberation movement to effective government.

The evidence of that is all around us – from the looting by cadres, to the collapse of many pieces of infrastructure connected to the government, through corruption or incompetence.

Radebe believes the organisation can self-correct and that it has to, if it is to reverse its ballot box decline in local government and national elections in recent years.

Despite his own failings – and they are there – Radebe does seem to carry the moral authority of the “old guard” of the ANC who led the struggle against apartheid. Yet, at the same time, he also represents the old and hidebound leadership which has allowed all this to happen.

Can the ANC save itself?