The people have spoken, ANC

A fitting epitaph to the ANC’s belief that it should be the sole and authentic representative of the people of South Africa could come from the words often attributed to the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.

He said, in what should be a warning to all politicians: “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time; but you cannot fool all the people all of the time.”

What the result of Wednesday’s election is telling us is that South Africans – the majority of us – have had enough of being lied to and misled by the ruling party.

And so, we have taken away their parliamentary majority – their divine right to rule this country as if it was their fiefdom.

No matter the aspersions the party may cast – about tribalism, about racism, about “betrayal of the revolution” by their opponents – the reality is that the losses at the polls are a self-inflicted injury.

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Some party stalwarts, who risked their lives and freedom in the righteous fight against apartheid, are dismayed that the home of Nelson Mandela and OR Tambo has degenerated into a den of thieves and incompetents.

The shining dream of 1994, of an African country which could, rightly, take its place at the world’s top table, has been betrayed by those who should have made it come true.

The ANC should have seen it coming – and perhaps President Cyril Ramaphosa did, with his promise of a “new dawn”.

Yet, his failure to execute on that promise and his ongoing lapse into race-tinged populism to divert attention from this failure, have made a bad situation even worse.

Perhaps the only positive for the country is that the people have shown they will punish those who don’t act in their interests.

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