Mathews Phosa has never been more disgusted with the ANC

ANC member and outspoken former Mpumalanga premier Mathews Phosa made waves on Sunday in a column printed in The Sunday Independent in which he expressed his greatest disillusionment yet with his party.

He said that having been in the gallery in the National Assembly during the state of the nation address was like a Damascene moment for him.

“In every politician’s life there is a Damascus moment, and in some cases, more than one.”

He slammed parliamentary Speaker Baleka Mbete for “callously, coldly and clinically [refusing] to allow Parliament to bow their heads to show that they feel the pain of the families of the [Esedimeni] 94 who had died because the government looked the other way”.

He also hit out at President Jacob Zuma, who was “found not to have honoured his constitutional oath of office had only laughter to offer” in the face of apartheid-style assault in the House.

He said that he would “refuse, as a disciplined cadre of this movement, to have my coffin buried in the same graveyard as such leaders who have made the choice to place their own corrupt interests above that of those that we swore, yes swore, to serve”.

“It is enough, I say, enough.”

He later in his column compared Zuma with the late Nelson Mandela, who had been asked to stay on as president, but set the example instead of by leaving after only one term.

“Now we have a president, when we plead with him to go, stays. My plea remains: Please, for once, serve your people, and go. Go now. If you don’t, history will judge you to be the chief architect of the destruction of the ANC.

“We will have to perform a miracle to get anywhere near 50% of the vote in 2019.

He encouraged others in the party to also speak up, even though that would put them “in the firing line” with him.

“I know that I am not the only one who feels this way. I know that there are cabinet ministers and NEC members who feel the same way. I urge them again, to speak up. Find your inner voices, find your pride, find your character and speak before your children and grandchildren, and history, judge you harshly for being silent.

“Good men cannot be silent in the face of evil. Silence is connivance.”

You can read the full column here.