Rude wake-up call for ANC at polls

The ANC, once so arrogant in its belief that it would rule “till Jesus returns” (as Jacob Zuma put it), has been knifed from all sides in these local government elections … and it is bleeding.

Perhaps its most dramatic setbacks have been in KwaZulu-Natal, Zuma’s home turf. Despite Zuma’s entreaties to “his people” to vote for the ANC as a party and not for personalities, KZN results show the ANC has lost serious ground in places to the Democratic Alliance and to a resurgent Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).

Elsewhere, it has probably lost supporters to the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), but nowhere near on the scale promised by EFF leaders.

ActionSA, the new kid on the electoral block, has done noticeable damage to the ANC in the townships, where the governing party, as well as the EFF, has underestimated people’s anger when it comes to illegal immigration.

Yet is it time – as one political analyst confidently declared – to call this “the beginning of the end for the ANC”?

While the voter turnout was low – indicating both apathy and a form of “protest vote” – the best efforts of the opposition parties have not been enough to remove the ANC’s overall majority. This despite the fact that the party is perhaps at its lowest ebb since 1994, with corruption seemingly going unpunished and incompetence thriving through cadre deployment … evidenced by blackouts and lack of service delivery.

The decline in ANC numbers means it will be forced into horse-trading with opposition parties both big and small. And that is no bad thing, if the ANC learns some humility in the process.

These election results are a wake-up call for the ANC: rid the party of clowns and corruption. If Cyril Ramaphosa does that, maybe the political gurus will describe this as “the end of the beginning” for the ANC.