Many thought that the birth of AgangSA was breath of fresh air in South African politics. This is because many people believed that the new party will bring about change and because it is led by a very educated person, former World Bank executive and former University of Cape Town Vice Chancellor.
In the run up to the formal launching of AgangSA, its leader Dr Mamphela Ramphele has been preaching a lot about corruption and lack of service delivery. I remember her speech about fear while she was addressing a crowd and probably trying to win more people to her party at Wits. It comes as no surprised that fellow academics supported her programme, they all had one thing common among themselves and that is their hatred for the ANC.
In AgangSA, those who worship and adore Dr Mamphela saw the birth of a party that is driven by anti-corruption and morality, a ‘future’ of this country. Those values have however failed to translate into reality. The ‘doctor’ has failed to live up to expectations of her followers and she seems clueless on how to run a political party. She has failed to differentiate Politics from Political Science and this was her downfall.
Few months after its launch, AgangSA leader decided to stand as a presidential candidate for another opposition party (DA) in February. This was done without consulting its structures and as a result, more divisions emerged within the organisation. Some members, including the spokesperson were purged, Mamphela withdrew her name as a DA presidential candidate. The organisation went all to receive a mere 28% of the national votes. This was the beginning of an end for AgangSA. Democracy had failed to exist within the organisation.
Days after elections, squabbles continued, again the ‘doctor’ was accused of side-lining certain leaders and preferring young and inexperienced members to go and serve in parliament. Mind you, they only have 2 seats in parliament but already they were fighting about who must go to serve and Mamphela herself was not the favourite within the party to represent it in parliament.
As if that was not enough, new scandals emerged. It is alleged that the ‘doctor’ opened a fraudulent bank account which IEC used to deposit money. This is another blow for Mamphela as she struggle for political survival in her ‘own’ party. We have now learnt that a criminal charge has been opened against her. If this is true, then Mamphela does not qualify to pretend as if she is immune from corruption, thuggery and immorality.
The ‘doctor’ is not alone here, across the road in De Korte the ‘commander in chief’ might be facing similar problem. EFF members are not happy about Malema’s style of leadership and are set to meet this weekend to plan on how they will deal with the CIC in the next coming conference. Malema’s dictatorial style has yet shown its ugly face within EFF, all this is done in the name of restructuring. But why would one restructure an organisation just few months before congress? The answer lies in Malema trying very hard to return as a commander in chief, all those who are seen as a threat to him are dealt with.
These events are teaching us that political parties born out of hatred for particular individual (President Zuma in this case) are bound to fail. EFF and AgangSA are heading in the same direction as the Congress of the People (COPE), which just lost 27 out of 30 seats in parliament. Political parties should be born out of the love to serve the people, not hatred and demagoguery slogans that are not translated into action.
*Tom Mhlanga is a BA student at Wits, writing in his personal capacity.
