ANC one of the biggest crime syndicates in the history of SA

When the ANC took over back in 1994, with late statesman Nelson Mandela as president, many South Africans heaved a sigh of relief and welcomed Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu’s idea of a “Rainbow Nation”.

But now, instability, corruption and disorder within the ANC had led to the downfall of the country, says political analyst André Duvenhage.

The ANC was one of the biggest crime syndicates in the history of this country and the evidence was quite overwhelming.

Duvenhage said there was a network of a “very big” corruption becoming institutionalised in the form of state capture, and the anger from South Africans should be read within the bigger pattern of instability and disorder within the ANC.

“South Africans cannot take it anymore, and if law and order is falling apart, the whole state as a concept is becoming non-existent,” he said.

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What Police Minister Bheki Cele and Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan incidents had in common was the involvement of being part of a bigger unstable environment.

The country saw Cele losing his cool after he was accused of failing to ensure the safety of residents in the Western Cape. A heated exchange between Cele and Action Society director Ian Cameron took place on Tuesday, after Cameron raised concerns about policing issues within the townships of Cape Town, such as Gugulethu and Nyanga.

On Thursday, Gordhan was called out by students at the University of Witwatersrand’s Wits School of Governance. The students accused Gordhan of “stealing Eskom” and claimed he needed to account for state capture because he had been appointed finance minister during the Jacob Zuma era.

According to Duvenhage, at grassroots level there was a lot of resistance, stemming from insurrection, structures within the ANC and a continuation of the revolt against the leadership of President Cyril Ramaphosa. Duvenhage said South Africans had passed the tipping point and people “did not care a damn”.

“They are taking the law into their own hands,” he said. “The core of a state has the ability to establish order, stability and security, but what we have at the moment is chaos and instability.

“People have lost trust, and it is clear in terms of the slower support levels and the high levels of political empathy, where violence has replaced constructive political processes.

Cameron said he was extremely excited to see the energy unlocked to hold “incompetent” ministers accountable and that it was crucial they were not allowed to shy away from robust discussions and debates, in addition to being publicly held accountable.

“This nonsense of closed door political discussions must end,” he said “I would encourage as many people as possible to attend public hearings, discussions and openly question, not only the authority of certain ministers who have turned their backs on the struggles of many people in the country, but hold them accountable with that.”

According to Cameron, the ANC was a “failure” of an organisation and a “cancer” to South Africa. The party had caused the further demise of the country and more importantly, the poor.

“Poor people cannot have hope when the ANC are at the sphere of things,” he said. “They are completely removed from reality. They have their own lives in one circle and the rest of South Africa is struggling in another circle.”

Cameron added the ANC had failed its mandate. It is time for them, especially the likes of Gordhan and Cele to realise, “we are not there to serve them but they are there to serve us”, Cameron said.

“They are public servants and need to start behaving like such.”