The flurry of displays of public unity by the ANC leadership of late looks rather like a school pantomime full of sound and fury, but signifying very little other than attempts to mask the reality that it is a deeply divided organisation which is also thoroughly at sea when it comes to governing coherently and with dignity.
Suddenly the leadership top six – including President Jacob Zuma – try to pretend, a little uncomfortably, that all is well in the movement despite a youth league that is in revolt, if not revolting. And an alliance partner, Cosatu, which is waging a war against key policy platforms of the ruling movement: e-tolling and labour broking come to mind. They have become the tails that wag the dog.
Not certain how to handle the opposition within its own ranks, the rather dramatic appearance of business leaders like Nedbank chairman Reuel Khoza and Garth Griffin, Absa’s outgoing chairman, on the political stage has provided a useful outlet to vent the ruling party’s pent-up anger while deflecting attention from themselves. The two business leaders bravely stuck their heads above the parapet, which in itself is deeply unusual for captains of capitalism.
Business Unity SA, which is a shadow of its former self after losing the bulk of its black leadership last year, doesn’t ever peep when it comes to suggesting appropriate political solutions to economic problems. The new breakaway Black Business Council hasn’t yet worked out its mission, so it keeps quiet too.
The two capitalist warriors complained about the poor political leadership quality and confused macroeconomic government policy. Khoza, a prominent ally of former president Thabo Mbeki, has, in particular, invoked the wrath of the ANC. Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa, of the powerful national working committee, responded to Khoza’s remark – about the “strange breed of leadership” with a moral quotient that was degenerating – with the accusation that he was a capitalist hypocrite.
Cabinet spokesman Jimmy Manyi also entered the fray, accusing Khoza of the failure to recognise the remarkable government achievements since democracy.
Then this week Keith Khoza, ANC communications head, in an article in The New Age accused former president FW de Klerk of “poisoning the South Africans with his utterances” about former president Nelson Mandela. Apparently because Mandela was black, “FW couldn’t acknowledge him” and De Klerk had the temerity to suggest that Mandela was not a saint.
De Klerk had said that as a political opponent his fellow Nobel laureate could be brutal and quite unfair. But De Klerk also said that “whenever the situation required it, he was able to rise above the political passions of the moment and join me in hammering out reasonable compromises”.
The ANC is simply paranoid. Possibly this arises from a deep-seated guilt about the massive display of wealth by the political establishment at a time when unemployment remains shockingly high, policies confused and personal ethics buried.
SACP leader Blade Nzimande says the financial sector is angry because Zuma has adopted a deliberate policy shift “from neo-liberal policies” to an active industrial policy. This, he claims, is “no good news” for the financial sector that has accumulated massive profits through debt-for-consumption financing rather than investment in the productive economy.
Mthethwa, accused of tapping into a R200 million secret service account, and Nzimande, known for his profligate lifestyle, are throwing stones from glass houses.