ANC more focused on squabbles than the economy

If this was not so serious, one would find the drama happening at Luthuli House more engrossing than any soapie on television.

Grown women and men have spent the last few months squabbling like kindergarten classmates with seemingly no end in sight.

What was envisaged to be a very progressive resolution aimed at demonstrating to the sceptical voting public that the ANC, after the Nasrec conference of 2017, was serious about combating corruption has turned out to be the most contentious issue since the adoption of the Freedom Charter in 1955 that led to the formation of the breakaway PAC.

When this step-aside resolution was adopted so enthusiastically, what did the delegates think it meant?

Did the people who are now eloquently arguing against its implementation not foresee it would affect them and their comrades?

Did they think that, like so many other conference resolutions, this one was also going to gather dust somewhere in the corner and never be implemented?

Or were they so preoccupied with the election race that they forgot to think this and many other resolutions through carefully enough? Or should we start to worry about the quality of delegates sent to these conferences?

I remember in August last year, ANC Ekurhuleni mayor Mzwandile Masina declared boldly on Twitter: “Tomorrow @ 11am I will be symbolically picketing against corruption outside St George’s Hotel and call for all ANC members who are facing charges of corruption to step aside!”

True to his word he did just that and held a placard that said: “Corrupt officials must step aside until they are cleared.”

His words have come back to haunt him as the NEC has finally taken the bold step of implementing this very resolution and has started with the secretary-general himself, Ace Magashule, who faces serious corruption charges in the Free State courts.

As expected, Masina is no longer singing quite the same tune as he was back in August last year. People are now invoking the “innocent until proven guilty” principle, as if this didn’t exist at Nasrec when they so enthusiastically adopted the very resolution.

Someone needs to tell them they cannot have their cake and eat it - either they support the resolution and its aims, or they do not view corruption as such a serious thing, or they support it so long as it does not affect any of their friends.

The last NEC meetings took place while the country was faced with the most serious crisis since 1994. You would have expected that the economy and the pandemic would have been on top of the agenda, not the squabbling we have seen.

This makes you wonder if the ANC has its priorities mixed up.

It makes you wonder if they realise that, as the ruling party, millions of South Africans depend on them to find a solution to the economic and health crisis we are in.

In the NEC statement presented by Cyril Ramaphosa, almost two pages were dedicated to their internal squabbles and a few small paragraphs to the economy and the pandemic. This tells you all you need to know about where their focus is.

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Someone needs to tell them they cannot have their cake and eat it

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Corrupt officials must step aside until they are cleared.