Time for ANC to speak the truth

The party’s leaders have consistently tried to pull the wool over the electorate’s eyes, but those days are over, writes

speak the truth? This is precisely what the ANC has been called on to do over the past 10 to 15 years. It is something they have not succeeded very well in doing.

The ANC appears to have lost the ability to speak truth to its own power. While the decay predates the Zuma years, few ANC leaders have “exposed” the ANC as badly.

Recent illustrations are too many to mention in full.

Earlier in the week, at the media briefing announcing the party’s decision to recall Zuma, the ANC, represented by its secretary-general Ace Magashule, insisted on telling at least two half-truths – namely that Zuma had done no wrong (and therefore he was being recalled for no reason?) and that the ANC had given Zuma no deadline. Yet, Magashule divulged that he knew for sure when Zuma would respond. One has to wonder why Magashule needed to tell these two half-truths.

Similarly, after the Zuma resignation statement, the ANC lavished praise on Zuma, saying “while we acknowledge errors and mistakes that were committed, President Zuma leaves a legacy of delivery in many critical areas”.

Since the statement is completely silent on the “errors and mistakes”, one may be justified to wonder what those might be?

Could they include state capture, giving the Guptas’ power to appoint cabinet ministers, corruption, self- enrichment, cronyism, destabilisation of the state-owned enterprises and violating his oath of office as president?

Errors and mistakes my foot! These are huge issues.

Speaker of Parliament Baleka Mbete wholly and shamelessly blamed “the disruption, anarchy and chaos that have been characteristic of this annual joint-sitting” for the unprecedented postponement of the Sona. Really?

Would it not have been better for her to take the nation into her confidence and explain that the governing party had forced a postponement of the Sona because they did not want Zuma to deliver it, because they felt he was a flawed character and they were in the process of recalling him?

The ANC cannot have its cake and eat it. It cannot, on the one hand, go to the lengths it did to recall an “innocent man” called Zuma, but also wish to use the same “innocent man” as the fall guy and a mirage with which to dupe the electorate for the 2019 elections. The sophisticated South African electorate will easily see through the ANC’s transparent attempt to offer Zuma as a quick-fix sacrifice in exchange for their votes.

Either the ANC has or does not have any intention to move away from the corruption trajectory of Zuma. If it intends to change, the ANC will set up disciplinary processes against Zuma and all those who assisted him in acts that have damaged the reputation of the party, the reputation of its current president, as well as that of the country.

The ANC’s inability to come clean and acknowledge wrongdoing not only on the part of Zuma, but on its own part as an organisation, would seem to suggest the organisation is unwilling to self-correct and that it is not yet ready to renew itself.

It may mean the organisation is comfortable with being a permanent looting machine, with different factions taking turns to use it so they can eat.

My hope is that President Cyril Ramaphosa will not squander the goodwill South Africans are extending to him right now. It is my hope that he will rein in his general secretariat, both of whom have until now seemed to have been brazenly running their own parallel show in Luthuli House.

While at it, Ramaphosa may wish to rid the cabinet of several flawed ministers whose performance is nothing to write home about.

He will need to sort out the prosecutorial, policing and investigative agencies.

There are several people needing to be investigated and/or arrested or both. And there is the comatose economy to be recalibrated.

● Maluleke is a professor at the University of Pretoria. He is currently a distinguished fellow and visiting professor at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, US.