ANC top brass will be saying good riddance to 2014

255-ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said there is still hope for Numsa and Cosatu, but said attacks by Irvin Jim's union on the ANC were unfounded. Luthuli House Johannesburg 10.11.2014 Picture:Dumisani Dube

255-ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said there is still hope for Numsa and Cosatu, but said attacks by Irvin Jim's union on the ANC were unfounded. Luthuli House Johannesburg 10.11.2014 Picture:Dumisani Dube

Published Dec 21, 2014

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Johannesburg - ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe described the party leadership’s schedule during the election campaign this year as “punishing”.

So intense was the campaign that President Jacob Zuma had to take leave immediately after the party secured a fifth term in government.

But if the election campaign was punishing, the rest of the year must have been brutal for the ANC, which found itself trying to put out one fire after another.

Whether the general elections were the toughest yet for the party remains debatable, but the results significantly changed the political landscape, with the DA making inroads in the townships and the emergence of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), formed after the second breakaway from the ANC since Zuma became its president.

Although the ANC often belittles the 6 percent of the vote won by the EFF, led by Julius Malema, the effect has been devastating in the public domain because of the EFF’s style of parliamentary politics.

ANC MPs watched helplessly as the new party dominated discourse in the National Assembly and stirred unprecedented levels of public interest in and media coverage of debates in the House.

The conduct of the EFF, which included swearing and “unparliamentary” gestures in the National Assembly, has been condemned all round.

However, the EFF shone a spotlight on one of the issues that threaten to define Zuma’s presidency: the controversial matter of Nkandla – although a number of its MPs have since been suspended for yelling “Pay back the money” at the president.

The fracas in the House over Nkandla opened two areas of debate: the wisdom of the ANC’s appointing a party office-bearer as the Speaker, and the party’s attitude to Public Protector Thuli Madonsela.

Mantashe has said it has nothing to do with the opposition whom the party appoints as Speaker. The subject is not a non-issue, however.

Madonsela is at the centre of the Nkandla matter, because of her report on the excessive spending, and has been the subject of numerous attacks on her office by ANC supporters and leaders.

Most of her detractors have accused her of playing to the gallery and of being attention-hungry, overstepping her mandate as a Chapter 9 institution, and misunderstanding the powers of her office.

While criticism of the office and person of the public protector – like that of any institution or individual – should be welcomed, that by the ANC has created the perception that Madonsela is being targeted because of her adverse findings on Nkandla.

In the past few years, the Office of the Public Protector has been instrumental in public representatives being held to account, with some of them being fired by Zuma based partly on its findings.

The perception that Madonsela is being targeted when she holds the highest office in the land to account does not bode well for the ruling party.

The ANC will be going to its national general council in June with another challenging election around the corner: the local government polls in 2016. One of its most troubling challenges will probably be how it can hold on to the metros in Gauteng – where it faced pressure this year from the DA and the EFF.

The DA reportedly spent about R100 million on the campaign of its candidate for Gauteng premier, Mmusi Maimane, now the party’s parliamentary leader. It had gradually been increasing its support in Gauteng. While the idea that it might win the province outright seemed far-fetched, it made the ANC work harder than to keep Gauteng.

Having wrested control of the Western Cape from the ANC in the 2009 polls, and with the service delivery issues and protests in Gauteng, the DA could perhaps be forgiven for believing the province was up for grabs.

The ANC response to the protests in Bekkersdal on the West Rand was an example of how pulling in different directions could tear a party apart.

Then-premier Nomvula Mokonyane had to apologise after being quoted as telling protesters that the ANC did not need their “dirty votes”. The response from the ANC provincial leadership was strikingly different. It went into the community to speak to residents, and appeared to be sympathetic to their grievances.

The rift between Mokonyane and the ANC provincial leadership was playing itself out in the public, complicating the ANC’s campaign strategy.

With the EFF also making inroads in the province, it was a no-brainer that the controversial issue of the e-tolls would compound the problems of a tough campaign for the ANC.

As the election results trickled in, it became clear that the ANC had suffered in Gauteng. It was at pains to play down its garnering 10 percent fewer votes than in 2009, but it was clear it was also worried.

The main worry was that the country was two years away from the 2016 local government elections, and if the provincial results this year were anything to go by, the ANC was in danger of losing the three key metros in the province.

The e-toll review panel established by the new premier, David Makhura, who is also deputy chairman of the ANC in the province, has been seen in some quarters as being central to the party’s 2016 elections strategy.

The narrative is that the party in the province is going against the national leadership and government in the hope of gaining credibility with Gauteng voters, most of whom are opposed to e-tolls. The ANC in the province disputes this, but this does not necessarily make it untrue.

As the ANC begins next year, delivering its January 8 statement in the Western Cape, many in the ruling party would be forgiven for saying “Good riddance 2014”.

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Sunday Independent

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