ANC leaders are an odd species

If some people are said to be political animals because of their immense involvement in politics throughout their lives, then the ANC’s leaders must be strange animals.

They have mastered the art of saying what they do not mean and the opposite of what they should say. They would even march with protesters instead of fixing their problem.

A typical ANC leader will say corruption must end, even when they are drowning in graft.

Some of them had such charges hanging over their heads like the Sword of Damocles for more than 20 years, some were indicted in recent years and others are yet to have the indictment delivered to their doors over state capture allegations.

But nothing deters them, even as they are exposed in the media, criminal investigations ensue, or when their fellows get caught in the act.

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But the same leaders unashamedly continue to use public platforms to preach the anticorruption gospel with confidence. ANC leaders speak left and act right, typical hypocrisy.

Jacob Zuma is an expert of double-speak and hyperbole. He condemns corruption with zeal, despite the truckload of charges hanging over his head.

He has taken the meaning of the kettle calling the pot black to another level. He accuses everybody else of being corrupt.

He has initiated “Zuma’s address to the nation”, deliberately making it sound like he is addressing all South Africans with our approval, when he is actually talking to the factions of the ruling party.

According to him, his nemesis, Cyril Ramaphosa, is the reason that the ANC is losing votes in every election.

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He forgets to mention that the ANC’s decline began with Polokwane and the entrance of the “Zuma tsunami”.

Throughout his two terms in office minus one year, the ANC electoral performance dropped, in contrast to the increased support under his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, who even delivered a two-thirds majority for the party, outdoing even the icon, Nelson Mandela.

Ramaphosa inherited a party that was in steep decline.

The ANC itself expected to perform below 40% at the 2019 elections, but Ramaphosa saved it from imminent power loss with 57%. Secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has said this on several occasions.

An acquaintance recently praised Zuma for his attempt to “rescue the ANC”.

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Apparently, the person believed the former president’s trick that the ANC is “now being led by some leaders who are behaving in an un-ANC manner that does not reflect the true character and mission of the organisation”.

“This has led me to identify the need to rescue our organisation from this un-ANC behaviour,” Zuma said.

The fan failed to consider that Zuma has acted in an un-ANC manner from 2005, if not before, when he was charged for corruption and for embarking on a tribalist campaign, including printing T-shirts that referred to him as “100% Zulu boy”.

His suspension by Luthuli House came a little too late considering his un-ANC behaviour prior to and throughout his nine years in power, including encouraging state capture and abusing the state security agencies for personal gain. Instead, the ANC defended him and that is now haunting them.

Journalist Getrude Makhafola put it succinctly this week, saying the “chickens have come home to roost”.

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I agree with her that the ANC leadership are so scared of him that they will make his suspension drag on until after the elections.

Otherwise, how can one explain the ANC’s failure to put Zuma on step-aside for his old corruption charges, as they did with Ace Magashule? Or was Magashule an easy target because he does not have a violent constituency?