ANC’s slump to affect SADC

The end of the dominance of the 112-year-old ANC does not augur well for other liberation movements in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) – where Namibia, Mozambique, Angola and Zimbabwe are still ruled by the parties which led them to independence.

While the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) has been in power since the country’s independence in the late 1960s, the government has never had any governing party outside the dominant BDP, which is currently under the leadership of Mokgweetsi Masisi.

In many African countries, we’ve seen people rising up against the liberation movements who were seemingly no longer serving the people’s interests in government.

In recent years, we’ve witnessed military coups which were relatively without bloodshed in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Niger.

The soft army coup in Zimbabwe was different in that it did not seek to remove the liberation movement but focused on Robert Mugabe, the country’s late dictator who collapsed the economy.

As these liberation movements supported each other during and after the struggle for independence, their close relationship continues on a party-to-party level.

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For example, the ANC has stronger ties with Namibia’s ruling Swapo, Zimbabwe’s Zanu-PF, Mozambique’s Frelimo and Angola’s MPLA.

It was easier for these liberation movements to cement their relationship and use it to foster foreign partnerships at government level.

However, we cannot shy away from the fact that these liberators have come to oppress the very people they claim to have liberated.

They’re not holding each other accountable for the atrocities that they commit against their people. All of them are bystanders as the Zimbabwean government continues to violate the human rights of poor citizens who are forced to flee their country for South Africa, Botswana, or overseas.

The demise of the ANC’s dominance in the political and electoral ecosystem augurs ill for the survival of the other SADC liberation movements.

We have to remember the influential role of South Africa and how it will continue to steer the direction of politics in Africa.

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This means the new government might not be passive or quiet about the injustices as well as atrocities that the people of Zimbabwe, Angola, Mozambique and Namibia are experiencing at the hands of their governments.

The ANC’s loss of domination in South Africa’s politics will have dire and direct impact on many governments in Africa and the rest of the world.

However, all this will depend on the new government’s priorities. Still, I strongly believe all the parties, except the ANC, are worried about how President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s party, Zanu-PF, is treating its people.

The country’s policy on Zimbabwe will take a new form and shape. ANC has been rather romantic with Mnangagwa at the expense of poor Zimbabweans who will always be at loggerheads with citizens of host countries due to competition over scarce resources.

Domestically, there are mixed feelings about the historic end of ANC’s dominance.

While many are worried about the future without the party they have been associating with their freedom all their lives, others are happy to have been freed from the chains of corruption, incompetence, unemployment, failed municipalities and other state institutions, lawlessness and disorder.

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That being said, the demise of the ANC’s dominance will drastically change the country’s polity – for better or worse.

The ANC’s defeat in the May general election matters in South Africa because it is a party that the majority of households associated with.

It was not easy for many loyal members and supporters of the ANC to betray the party and vote for opposition.

However, many voters felt it was important to prioritise the country over the ANC.

They have been voting for the ANC for the past six national and provincial elections based on sentimentalism and loyalty, not their performance in government.

They had an impression that the party would renew and self-correct, but it is becoming worse.

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