Mantashe being booed, heckled ‘a situation he created’

The heckling and booing of ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe at the party’s botched KwaZulu-Natal provincial conference is nothing but a question of chickens coming home to roost for him and the Polokwane leadership, says an analyst.

Benedict Xolani Dube, senior researcher at Xubera Institute for Research and Development in KZN, said unity and peace would not happen in the province for some time, perhaps until the ANC had managed to cleanse itself.

What was happening within the ANC in the province where the Polokwane anarchists were at each other’s throats for a piece of leadership pie could be a process of party self-cleansing.

He said heckling of leaders in KZN had become normal since the booing of former president Thabo Mbeki at the reburial of ANC stalwart Moses Mabhida in 2006 and, later, that of his former deputy, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, in Utrecht.

The incident at Harry Gwala Stadium in Pietermaritzburg saw some members staging a walkout when Mbeki took to the stage. Others, including senior party members in the province, remained to heckle him when he started his address.

“We have normalised the abnormal in this province,” said Dube. “How is it that people see the situation in KwaZulu-Natal as not being normal.”

At the weekend, Mantashe was booed by some members and others sang freedom songs, including Wenzeni uZuma, as he was addressing the conference.

The meeting was postponed indefinitely, but interim provincial task team coordinator Sihle Zikalala has since apologised to Mantashe and the ANC top brass for the booing.

On Friday, disgruntled party members, mainly from Moses Mabhida region, obtained an urgent interim interdict to stop the provincial conference.

Dube said it should not be surprising that Mantashe was booed because he created the situation himself.

“What makes the ANC to be surprised when Mantashe is booed?

“There is nothing wrong with that in this province because they have institutionalised such behaviour. Mantashe got what he created, Gwede nurtured these people.”

According to Dube, the ruling party was in a sinkhole and unable to rescue itself because it failed to understand the concept of democracy and the challenges of modernity.

The ANC, as a democratic organisation, should have a healthy debate instead of its members fighting among themselves, he said.

“A democratic organisation is where ideals or policies are supposed to be contested. But in the post-1994 ANC, there is a vulgarisation of democracy and that is what is killing the party.”

The ANC in KZN was not going to be united because the infighting was out of control, Dube added. As it was, the thugs were at each other’s throats and it appeared none would survive.

“Polokwane was the best place for the development of anarchy in the ANC and that anarchy has now matured,” he said.

“The Polokwane anarchists have the upper hand in the ANC. The ossified products of Polokwane are more dangerous than any other members of the ANC.”

He said there was no hope for unity in the KZN ANC and that, perhaps, the infighting was necessary to cleanse the party.

“Maybe the ANC is cleansing itself, maybe it’s the best thing that could happen to the party for its survival. Let those who live by the sword, die by the sword, so that the innocent can go in and reclaim the ANC. That’s my prayer,” added Dube.

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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