Is this weekend’s ANC elective conference the last major one for the continent’s oldest liberation movement?
Many probably expect it.
Like a toxic relationship with a long-suffering partner, the ruling party has sapped the strength of dozens of its supporters and left in its wake disappointment, bitterness and a faltering economy with near-record unemployment.
So indifferent is he to his abusive actions—his inherent corruption, an insatiable drive to loot, his glorification of the incompetent—that any future legacy will be overwhelmed by talk of more looting.
And, like the quintessential abusive lover, the ANC does not ask us to expect more from it, but less, so that we are happier.
The ruling party has failed the people of South Africa, and it is President Cyril Ramaphosa who sits at the helm as the light of the ANC becomes irrelevant.
If Ramaphosa had not won the presidency in 2017, whoever did would have been in the same position, and it would have been their name that would have been associated with the last gasps of the “glorious movement”.
Ramaphosa’s “New Dawn” was marketed as the transfiguration of the “nine lost years” under the direction of Jacob Zuma. But appointing the same people who broke the machine to fix it is futile.
Those who believe that the elective conference will usher in a new era of success and prosperity that will lead the ANC to a landslide victory at the polls in 2024, and to a bright and happy future for the citizens, have not followed the events of the past five years. Or they are so blinded by ideology that they will never see a ray of light. The party will have to really renew itself for this to happen.
To also believe that Ramaphosa will attack his botched cabinet with a scythe if he is re-elected – although there will surely be some changes – reveals a misunderstanding of the ANC mentality.
Ramaphosa is not the problem. It is the ANC, particularly its incompetence, that has been and continues to be the problem. Like a spoiled child with toys strewn at its feet, the ruling party will only learn to play nice if those toys are taken away and rules are made for their return.
Therefore, whichever leader emerges victorious at the conference is irrelevant. Until the ANC changes its operation and sheds some of the dead wood, there will be little prospect of hope, prosperity and renewal.
