MANDELA’S ANC IS DEAD

At a meeting of their National Executive Committee, (NEC), the African National Congress, (ANC), the proud liberation party of South Africa that fought for and achieved a democratic and non racial South Africa, was declared dead. The ailing Party had been on life support for years with the ghosts of Nobel Peace Laureates Albert Luthuli and Nelson Mandela hovering around in the hope that their Party would continue to midwife a non racial society and in the process raise the standard of living and bring good government to all. There are no other freedom organizations boasting three Nobel Peace Laureates, the third being being Archbishop Tutu, who has publicly prayed for the death of the ANC. (Blog: “Mandela’s South Africa - One Minute Before Midnight”). His prayers have been finally answered. So the passing of the ANC represents the death of idealism that had served as an inspiration to the world. 

This doesn’t mean that democracy in South Africa is dead but it does mean that the ANC in its present form will not be able to salvage it. The party is racked with cronyism, corruption and if it’s leader Jacob Zuma has his way it would degenerate South Africa into a third world basket case. 

ALL HOPES WERE ON THE NEC MEETING

It was at this weekend’s meeting of the National Executive Committee of the ANC that it was hoped that a motion of no confidence would be passed on it’s current leader and President, Jacob Zuma. Hopes were high that the NEC would deliver as they had done in ending the Presidency of Thabo Mbeki. There were pointers that the Zuma opponents had the majority of votes and South Africa’s currency, the rand, had strengthened, in anticipation.  

The ANC top brass gathering was held against the backdrop of widening opposition to the current President. Two of the ANC partners, the Trade Union Organization, COSATU and the South African Communist Party, (SACP), had disavowed the increasingly isolated leader. His axing of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan who was serving as a brake on his moves to bankrupt the country with his dubious schemes which reeked of corruption and kickbacks had precipitated a financial crisis. The aftermath was a countrywide protest of unprecedented proportions that mobilized every corner of the country. The fact that all this had not phased the leader one jot was all the more reason that he had to go. The Gordhan decision resulted in the currency plunging and a downgrade of South African bonds to junk status. (Blog: “Zuma Plunges South African Rand Into Crisis”).

There is of course, in addition to COSATU and the SACP the long suffering SA Council of Churches, that has stood behind the ANC through thick and thin that have finally baled out as have a wide-ranging section of academics.

Zuma has unashamedly run rough shod on the country’s constitution exhibiting, hitherto unwitnessed, cronyism and corruption. His venal ways and in conjunction with a family of thugs  are slowly but surely taking over all the state means of production in a style reminiscent of Putin and his oligarchs. This has made his exit all that more urgent. Had this veto on the State President materialized it would have lead to the scheduled vote of no confidence in Parliament being passed. The latter sanction has now next to no chance of being accepted.

The NEC decision not only didn't back his departure they stated that the attack on Zuma was a thinly veiled assault on the ANC itself thereby allying the ANC with this one man wrecking ball. In so doing they intoned the epitaph on the grave of the once great Party.

ZUMA HAS POPULATED STATE INSTITUTIONS WITH YES MEN

Zuma has been in power for eight years in which time he has slowly but surely recruited yes men onto his gravy train. He has eliminated agencies that investigated crimes and abuses of power. Even his judicial appointments have raised eyebrows. Thus far the only Governmental brakes to his march to dictatorship have been the Judiciary, the Constitution and the Court that interprets it. There are the still the non governmental institutions that rally round the forces of right. The media so instrumental in the crashing of apartheid, though still free, are to a large extent pale shadows of their former selves in exposing and attacking Zuma’s despotism.

The last hope for Zuma’s immediate exit is the parliamentary no confidence debate. To succeed seventy members of the ruling ANC would have to split ranks - an action called by the pitiful ANC as counter revolutionary. (The NEC also resorted to the old canard that much of the opposition to Zuma came from foreign agents). Jay H. Ell would like to pass on some political advice to those in the ANC who have opposed Zuma - defy the ANC hierarchy and vote for the no confidence motion. As a result of your opposition to Baas Zuma you days in the ANC are numbered anyway. In the event that the ANC are voted out in 2019 you could be part of the new dispensation. 

THE ENDGAME

The NEC by not taking steps to rectify the Zuma delinquency have irretrievably split the Party and its alliances. There is nothing left but a shell manned by party operatives - no trade unions, loss of all those ANC stalwarts that brought about the bloodless revolution, including the Communist Party, abandonment by the academics and a broad swath of its own electorate - as the protests and the recent Municipal and bye elections have shown. According to the latest Bloomberg poll two thirds of ANC members want him to quit. 

Even assuming that in 2018 Zuma’s anointed successor, one of his wives, doesn’t get elected leader of the ANC and Cyril Ramaphosa assumes the mantle, it really is to late. By that stage Ramaphosa would have lost what credibility he still has in a Party that now has none. His best bet, too, would be to vote against Zuma in the no confidence debate and hopefully take other leading lights such as Gordhan with him and form some coalition with the Democratic Alliance’s Mmusi Maimame. It is worthwhile reflecting that the ANC’s share of the vote dropped to 54% in the recent Municipal bye elections and they lost the Mayoral Offices of nearly every big city in South Africa. (Blog: Mandela’s Vision Resurfaces in South African Elections”). Although it has to be unthinkable for many to vote against the Party of Liberation many have already taken the plunge.

Then of course Zuma can win his vote of no confidence and shepherd in his ex good lady, Ms Dlamini Zuma as the future leader of the emasculated ANC and as President of South Africa. He can take up residence in Dubai where his good friends the Guptas through their good offices have obtained him citizenship. From there he can watch from a distance South Africa sink into the swamp of corruption and cronyism that is his legacy.

One crowd that have to be pleased with the outcome of the ANC Meeting have to be the opposition. If they had to chose a candidate to run against it would be Jacob Zuma. And if they had to pick a Party to run against it would be one that claimed that attacks on Jacob Zuma are attacks on the Party itself.

Whichever way you look at it Mandela’s ANC is dead. Also deceased is the giddy idealism and hope that the freedom movement heralded, not only for South Africa but for the world.

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