A VIEW OF THE WEEK: Forget January 8, 2025 will be a statement year for the ANC

“Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die,” says the famous lines often attributed to verses in the Bible. A potential prophecy for this year’s ANC birthday celebrations.

Next week will bring the usual wreath layings and visits to veterans’ family homes but little reflection and even less implementation of what those struggle stalwarts fought for.

There will be a January 8 statement of intent, filled with promises and tales of success. A to-do list of how the country can improve under its leaders in government.

But for those in Luthuli House, the to-do list would better be replaced with a wishlist with one item on it: unity.

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ANC: a house divided

President Cyril Ramaphosa has for the last 7 years towed the party line of putting ANC before the country, leaving him slow, inefficient, and straight-up incompetent at times as a result.

But he was probably the best the party could do after the years of Jacob Zuma as president. And, as painful as it was for all citizens, it kept the ANC from collapsing and fading into oblivion.

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His bubble gum and sticky tape bandaids called “concessions” bought time with comrades – but the knives are still very much out.

Factions exist in every political organisation but appear more pronounced in the ANC. The party touched on it this week in a letter to members reminding them not to get dragged into ANC succession debates and fights.

And the two things that fuel a faction are the feeling of injustice and a cause.

Injustice

No doubt the ANC’s correct decision to reflect on its dire 2024 national elections showing and hold leaders accountable has ruffled a few feathers. Those asked the hard questions will be defensive and may feel the party’s failure begins with its top leadership who must also take blame.

Feeling like the scapegoats their instincts are fight or flight.

And for the disgruntled who don’t try to slug it out at the party’s National General Council later this year, it may be better to leave.

Flight could then be a theme of the ANC this year, as factions make the now-worn track to Nkandla.

A cause

A comrade in a liberation movement needs a cause. An exciting one. Not ones like filling in paperwork, maintaining infrastructure, or providing service delivery.

They were fed, like they will be again next week at the January 8 celebrations, on a steady diet of heroic stories against oppression. It will teach them that to make a name for yourself you need to make a splash.

So it is then no wonder there are whispers of double agents in the party with their allegiance more firmly to Zuma and, by extension, his uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party.

The MK Party have a to-do list of radical causes to fight and is hiring and suspending at a frantic rate.

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It is these factions and their battles that will shape the ANC this year more than any statement delivered next week in the Western Cape.

It will either cleanse the party or leave it far weaker come January 8 2026.

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