Cape Town - The ANC must still be pondering over what hit it. How could a party of its stature, not to mention an almost 63 percent majority, have been so rattled by a bunch of upstarts, barely out of their political nappies relative to the venerable liberation movement?
How could it have spent the better part of four hours of a parliamentary sitting suffering the slings and arrows of a relentless attack on its record and, especially, on its president, seemingly lost for a response?
Because, let’s face it, 63 percent played 30 percent-odd (if you combine the participating opposition parties) and 30 percent won, at least in terms of setting the agenda and dominating the exchange.
This is not a contact sport (most of the time) and it remains to be measured in a future election how the public will take to the street-fighting tactics of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in particular, but there can be no doubt that it is defying the odds in keeping the governing party on the back foot.
For six months the party that should be setting the parliamentary agenda has found itself continually being caught offguard by the EFF, frequently in combination with the DA and other opposition parties.
Together they have succeeded in projecting themselves in the public discourse as bigger hitters than the ANC, for so many years a monolith of politics.
Its motto, “The ANC lives, the ANC leads”, is looking increasingly like “The ANC limps, the ANC bleeds”.
How did this happen?
For one thing it is at a natural disadvantage as the governing party, which obliges it more or less to play by the rules, while the EFF has made it clear it feels no such need.
The ANC can use its deployed presiding officers in Parliament to snuff out the odd line of questioning in a debate or rule some commentary out of bounds that the public at large is saying anyway, but as the custodian of the institution this succeeds only in making it look like a bully and plays into the hands of the “fighters”.
When, on the other hand, you come to Parliament calling yourself the “fighters” you are indicating that the rules serve only as another terrain of battle.
Thus, even when the ANC is able to anticipate some extraordinary tactic, as it apparently had on Thursday when it tried to block the hundreds of notices of motion the opposition rained on it, the party is fighting with one hand behind its back relative to the loose-cannon ways of the EFF.
As the governing party, the ANC has been required to deploy its brightest minds in the executive, while the best talent of the opposition, barring perhaps the DA’s leader, Helen Zille, can focus solely on Parliament.
Thus, while opposition MPs, clearly having swotted for Thursday’s session at least days in advance, kept up a relentless torrent of barbs – Would Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom declare Nkandla a tourist attraction? How fast do chickens move in the infamous chicken coop? What is the security function of a swimming pool? – it fell to the likes of Public Service and Administration Minister Collins Chabane, Deputy Public Works Minister Jeremy Cronin and Deputy Justice Minister John Jeffery to fly the ANC banner.
The rest of the ANC benches sat stunned and dejected.
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa consoled Speaker Baleka Mbete and Defence Minister Nosiviwe Maphisa-Nqakula with a bag of sweets after Mbete had suffered the humiliation of having her own party back the opposition in allowing unlimited time for notices of motion and motions without notice, contrary to her earlier ruling.
They may be unruly and frequently puerile but, across the aisle, the EFF MPs are full of youthful vigour and sharp dialogue.
But the biggest reason the ANC has not been able to get on the front foot is that its flanks are exposed on two sides.
It has a president who cannot face the public, or Parliament, without risking yet another humiliation.
Whatever the legal merits of the party’s defence of President Jacob Zuma, and they are pretty hard to detect, in the public domain he is damaged goods.
For the opposition parties that means he’s the gift that keeps on giving.
No matter how outrageously they behave, they can always justify this on the basis that the president himself has wronged the nation and refuses to account.
They are merely seeking to ensure he doesn’t slip off the hook.
Without Zuma the EFF’s antics would begin to look increasingly reckless and infantile.
It’s a mystery why the president did not long ago draw the sting, as he could have done without expending too much political or actual capital, by agreeing that, even if he hadn’t asked for or fully realised the extent of the extravagance at his home, it was clear its value had been inflated by the expenditure of public money and he should pay a nominal sum back.
He could have done this without accepting any guilt, but by now it is probably too late to do so without losing face.
This puts the ANC in the untenable position of trying to defend the absurdly indefensible. Hence, it is losing ground in Parliament.
Its second weak spot is Ramaphosa, but he is also a strength.
Like Zuma, almost his every appearance in Parliament is marked by the dredging up of a scandal – Marikana in his case and his alleged role in the tragedy – but, unlike Zuma, he has chosen to confront his detractors and argue his cause.
It remains to be seen whether the findings of the Farlam inquiry, now close to its climax, will be damaging for the deputy president but, by remaining composed and fronting up to criticism he is at least holding his ground.
Until the ANC somehow resolves these handicaps, the EFF has nothing to lose by throwing decorum to the wind and the governing party will remain on a hiding to nothing.
Political Bureau