EDITOR – What was intended to be a sea of black, green and gold at the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium on 16 April turned out to also reflect a sea of red empty seats.
This must be seen as the first crack in the ANC's hold over the blind loyalty of the masses that we have witnessed in the past. The plan was to bus in ANC supporters from across the country estimated at 100 000, with an expectation that the numbers would reflect the overwhelming support of the masses for the ANC. The ANC pulled out all stops to achieve this impression but alas, the strategy failed.
This fact can be trivialised but is politically loaded given the reality on the ground. The masses appear by this subliminal omission to be saying to the ANC that, “you can fool some people some of the time but not all people all of the time.” The other fact that has reared its ugly head in the recent past is that the discontent of the masses has become more structured and more vocal in that the masses have taken to the streets in various municipalities to reflect their discontent by way of “service delivery protests”. All citizens have a need to be concerned at the level of violence that has erupted in the name of “protest”.
Twenty-two years after the birth of our democracy, delivered by an ANC that had the moral high-ground and the leadership of iconic stature, and all the ANC had to do was just the righteous thing – keep their promise to the masses. The ANC had the road map and the journey was mapped out for them with a clearly defined vision, mission and objectives and the guiding light was the Constitution. This very Constitution was hailed as the “mother of all Constitutions” being described as having the orchestral harmony of Mozart's symphony, with every beat in tune. The ANC however lost its way on a straight road.
Twenty-two years on and the ANC pledges “people first” and the President recognises that the very people who put them into power by the power of the vote are often “invisible” on this journey. President Zuma also went on to pledge “that over the next five years the ANC would improve access to water by increasing the capacity of dams….and because sanitation means dignity for our people and its provision is very important to the ANC the government would work hard to provide this service”.
The tragedy of all these hollow promises is that the masses have heard this all five years ago and five years before. The sad reality is that the President said that the ANC was led by the Constitution of the Republic and goes on saying that: “the ANC is guided by the Constitution …in all the work it does to improve the quality of the lives of the people.
Has the ANC lost the plot and lost its way – has the once revered organisation that generated hope become hopeless? Has the wall-papering of the cracks begun to show?
Sicario
Durban
