Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya
Something must jar when any talk of change in the political leadership of a city or a town is about everything except the abilities or inabilities of the outgoing or the incoming.
We seem to be there though. There is a battle to the death in many of our towns and cities as we edge closer to the August 3 local government elections.
Three ANC members were buried in Pietermaritzburg on Sunday in what those close to the issues accept has to do with the process of choosing potential councillors.
On the same day, an ANC member in Pretoria was shot dead also in relation to who should represent the ANC in local government.
On Monday, ANC chairwoman in eThekwini Zandile Gumede was on the front pages of newspapers saying she fears for her life. Gumede says some of the fears emanate from her own party and that the “moles” fomenting anarchy are being monitored.
On Monday and yesterday, Pretoria came to a standstill because those who say they are ANC members or supporters decided to make the various parts of the municipality ungovernable for no other reason than that they do not approve of the ANC’s choice of who should be mayor should the party win the elections.
Again, it is not the candidate Thoko Didiza’s ideas they do not like. It is that her umbilical cord was buried in KwaZulu-Natal – even though she has lived in the city for about two decades. Didiza is now in the eye of the storm of an all-or-nothing politics that has nothing to do with her.
She is in it because the two party leaders in the city, Mapiti Matsena and present mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa, do not see eye to eye.
Without referring to any of the names mentioned above, it is trite that the greatest stirrer of passions within the ANC is access to state resources rather than ideological differences.
And why should you care if you are not an ANC supporter or voter?
The ANC still commands the hearts and minds of the majority of South Africans. Such has been the nature of the ANC’s landslide wins in every general election since 1994 that its opponents are heartened by the party going just below 66 percent of the votes.
Unfortunately for all of us, a dysfunctional ANC makes for a dysfunctional South Africa.
As matters stand, a good number of those who say they are ANC supporters or members think they are the biblical Samson.
They are ready to go down only if the ANC and society go down with them.
We are reaping the whirlwind. It was in our time that we made being popular the highest achievement anyone who sought a public leadership position could attain.
I could say that we have turned the political discourse into an Idols competition, but this would be an insult to the popular music talent contest.
At least with Idols, it is a competition between those everyone already agrees is talented. It is a popularity contest between the best to choose the very best.
Not with our politics. It is just about how popular you are.
I would not put it past many of the current crop of activists to dismiss a Duma Nokwe or a Sol Plaatje just because he happened to fraternise with the wrong faction.
If the ANC is to arrest the path to self-implosion, it must reform. It must make ideas, proven ability, experience and fitness for the purpose at hand part of the leadership matrix. Popularity is not bad when you are obsessed with how many “likes” you get on your Facebook page.
If what is required is someone to steward a city or province or even the country’s political economy in tough times, surely one’s ancestral history or popularity cannot trump everything else.
The ANC must evolve if it is serious about preserving its own record as a liberation movement.
It cannot be that it waged a long and arduous struggle that cost the lives of so many just so that some of its members could be elected as councillors.
The idea of the ANC having internal processes of choosing who will represent the party is laudable. Unfortunately, it is fraught with unintended and unforeseen problems. The branches might think one thing, but the last decision lies with the provincial executives who might have their own ideas.
Another thing, the candidate’s ability to do the job required by that community is never the issue – at least, not publicly. All that matters is that the masses have spoken and that should be the end.
This mentality will not only kill off the ANC, it will make our country a failed state.