Desperate times for the ANC

With the ANC national elective conference a mere week away, it is not unusual to see high tensions, tough talk and trading of harsh words by comrades belonging to the same party.

I recall in 1991 – a year after the unbanning of liberation movements, including the ANC – journalists would be fed information about comrades who were investigated in exile for being “apartheid agents”.

Branded “apartheid spies” or “informers”, you would be told about some high-profile leaders who were detained in the infamous ANC detention camps in Angola for questioning.

So strong would the rumour mill be, combined with a flurry of unsubstantiated allegations preceding the first democratic elections in 1994, that you would think you were not dealing with people who were together in the trenches – fighting a common enemy.

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This was a precursor of the current atmosphere bedevilling the ANC, with members jockeying for positions at all costs – a development that continues to threaten to party unity, due to factionalism.

“Time for us to eat,” is how some ANC members have referred to this jostling for power – a ladder to strategic positions in government and access to tenders, with friends and families of the politically connected benefitting.

The groundswell within the party of attacks on President Cyril Ramaphosa over Phala Phala should be understood within this context – not about any fundamental policy shift.

While Ramaphosa should account for what happened on his game farm two years ago, the concerted campaign to unseat him as party president in the upcoming ANC national conference is not driven by people who are squeaky clean and ethical.

His chief rival for the position of president is Dr Zweli Mkhize, who had to resign last year amid news of family members and associates having scored handsomely from a R150 million Digital Vibes communications deal – part of funds set aside to fight the Covid pandemic.

Also running for the ANC presidency is Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma – known for the Sarafina scandal during the Nelson Mandela presidency. Her proximity to former president Jacob Zuma can only spell disaster for the country, should she be elected.

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Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, whose delivery track record in government has left much to be desired, is another.

As daggers were drawn against Ramaphosa, no amount of opportunism can equal that of ANC treasurer-general Paul Mashatile – doubling as acting party secretary-general.

Amid the drama, Mashatile – in a race to become ANC deputy president – found it fitting to call a special national executive committee (NEC) meeting, immediately after the Section 89 panel found Ramaphosa has a case to answer.

This was despite Mashatile having a good grasp of ANC processes and protocols: the usual Monday meeting of the top six officials at the Johannesburg Luthuli House party headquarters, followed by the national working committee (NWC), which then reports to the NEC.

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For him, this was too long a process to follow.

Political analyst Dr Ntsikelelo Breakfast has cautioned: “Mashatile strikes me as a manoeuvrist and much as he supports Ramaphosa in public, he does not mean it.

“We are talking here about a politician who will always manoeuvre for himself.

“We should not rule out the possibility that Mashatile could be nominated from the floor of the conference as president of the ANC.”

Desperate times.