March a misplaced overreaction

I read with total dismay intertwined with confusion and sniggers about ANC leaders proclaiming that they emerged victorious from the march to Goodman Gallery in Rosebank on Tuesday. How can the ANC emerge victorious in a country that they lead?

One emerges as a victor in a fight against an opponent.

Besides the march being an embarrassment to the party and the country at large, who was the ANC fighting?

The march confirms the assertion that the party is paranoid, arrogant, confused, visionless and delusional.

Doesn’t the party know that a leader will never march against its subordinates, but will rather guide in the most constructive manner?

Is the Goodman Gallery an adversary?

No, it is one of the many job creators in the country, and is under the leadership of the ANC.

This march is a misplaced overreaction and a waste of resources and time; nevertheless it is consistent with the current ANC’s character of leadership – confusion, misunderstanding, poor and visionless leadership and a celebration of mediocrity.

This is no different from a parent who marches against his/her children when they are perceived to have erred.

Throwing the baby out with the bath water is no better way to regain reputation and dignity.

What the ANC has achieved is confusion of the role they should be playing in rebuilding SA’s future.

Do they think they are still banned and fighting some imaginary system? Inadvertently, the small victory it celebrates exposes the ANC’s waning power

. They intended to have 15 000 marchers but all they could gather (through free buses) is a group of people fewer than the DA’s march to Cosatu.

Yes, this calls for celebration because this current ANC is full of unfulfilled promises, so a small victory is worth celebrating.

This is why our children have to get 30 percent to pass matric. This is why a 25 percent unemployment rate is not a problem.

This is why poor workmanship on RDP houses is celebrated.

This is why the income inequality gap is not a national crisis when the elites and their children build bunkers in the midst of poverty. This is why negative job growth is celebrated despite the promise of 500 000 jobs a year.

I won’t even mention a nonchalant approach to service delivery, crime and corruption, ethical conduct of officials, transparency, etc.

Now that the party celebrates bullying the City Press and Goodman Gallery into removing the portrait, will they behave like the Fourth Plebeian in Act III, scene 3, of Julius Caesar and pluck the portrait out of our imagination?

Their effort will never achieve their objective of removing the portrait, but will instil fear in people, just like bullies celebrate usurping the lunch boxes of other children.

Phillimon Mnisi

Joburg