ANC Eastern Cape conference a glimpse of SA chaos

The saddest thing that the Eastern Cape conference demonstrated is that the ruling party couldn’t even arrange seating arrangements and voting accreditation.

One of the areas most devastated by the floods in April besides KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) is the Eastern Cape. Although the damage was not as severe as it was in KZN, the floods added to the province’s long list of problems.

The only difference is that the floods are a natural phenomenon, but the province’s other woes are man-made. It has been an administrative mess for the longest of time.

Some of the country’s most embarrassing corruption stories come out of that province. If there was a province that could claim to be the home of anti-apartheid struggle royalty, it’s the Eastern Cape.

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Not only has it produced the first two presidents of democratic South Africa, but its townships also played a critical role during apartheid.

The Cradock Four leaders are but one story that forms the mosaic of SA’s turbulent ’80s. Yet, today, Cradock has townships that have raw sewage flowing through its streets.

The province also has children dying of starvation in 2022. Yet, it is the ruling party’s second-biggest voting block after KZN.

This past weekend saw the ANC’s bigwigs descend on the province to attend the organisation’s provincial conference.

As has now become the norm, the conference almost descended into chaos because the biggest focus was never what the ruling party can do to turn things around for the people of the province that gave the world Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki.

It focused on who would “emerge” as the chair of the party in the province, and thus wield enough influence to determine who will lead the ANC after December’s national conference.

It is perhaps useful that certain parts of the conference were televised on national news stations so that the country can see for itself the sort of chaos that goes into elections that determine who gets to lead the country.

The irony is that there is no focus on why the province’s health system is in shambles, or why historic towns like Mthatha and Makhanda have become examples of what broken cities/towns look like. There is no systematic process through which leaders of the ruling party can be held accountable for the poor state of the province.

The saddest thing that the Eastern Cape conference demonstrated is that the organisation running the country couldn’t even arrange seating arrangements and voting accreditation at its own provincial conference.

But this was no surprise at all because this conference had been postponed at least four times before and there needed to be a provincial task team and a steering committee just to ensure that 1 500 delegates can get accredited and seated in one hall – obviously an almost impossible task for an organisation that has allowed sewage to run through the streets of a province that should be its showcase.

As long as the focus remains on whose turn it is to eat, instead of how well the previous incumbents spent the public money they were entrusted with, it will not matter who is at the helm.

Historic towns like Makhanda will continue struggling to have basics like water, children will die of starvation, sewage will run in the streets. Until the electorate learns that it gets the government it elects, things will not change.

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