The ANC has to learn not to believe its own propaganda if it is to rescue its electoral chances and hold on to power in 2019, writes Lebo Keswa.
Faith Muthambi’s pathetic puff piece in The Sunday Independent last week left me rather cold.
Not that I was totally surprised by this mind-numbing psychopathy but it is the extent of it that leaves much to be desired in the face of overwhelming public outpouring of discontent, especially after the reckless actions of President Jacob Zuma.
But we need to pause and sympathise a little with someone as incompetent as Muthambi. After all, she has single-handedly destroyed whatever was left of credibility in the SABC through implementing a wrecking ball strategy with the full confidence of the president.
This is a minister who has been a total failure, unable to defend the government in any sensible way since she was put in charge of communications a few years ago. She could not even articulate herself recently when she presented a Metro FM award and embarrassed herself in front of 20-year-olds (they laughed at her like they were watching a clown in a circus).
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So embarrassed was the cabinet by her inarticulation that it had to replace her as its spokesperson a mere two months after she made a mess of cabinet briefings.
So forgive me if I don’t believe anything she has to say after being finally fired from that post.
Her article that sought to brush off the people’s marches as protecting white privilege is simply appalling and must be thoroughly condemned as an embarrassment to the ANC and the country seeking to reposition itself as an investment destination.
Quite apart from the fact that she is unlikely to have penned the horrible piece herself, given her poor articulation of anything that has been her responsibility, it was annoying to read through what has become the complacency of our rulers in the face of public scrutiny.
The ANC has to learn not to believe its own propaganda if it is to rescue its electoral chances and hold on to power in 2019.
Muthambi, or whoever her scribe is, makes a meal of the fact that Cosatu stayed away from the protests as they are “not confused about who the enemy is”. She conveniently does not deliberate on the fact that the same Cosatu has now called for the president to resign.
Is their call a call by white monopoly capital? Are the leaders of Cosatu making a bidding for white privilege in making this correct and overdue call? Apparently the people making the call for Zuma to resign can’t speak about corruption because they have never called white capital out on corruption.
This is the most lame argument ever to be advanced on self-preservation.
The reality is that the SACP has always called out white business in various campaigns over the years. That same SACP today is calling for Zuma to resign.
Muthambi’s ghost writers make a meal of the fact that the firing of Pravin Gordhan is an ethical issue, with all others who were fired being reduced to a footnote.
This is a blatant lie.
The reality is that all other aspects of the reshuffle were a smokescreen and that everyone with two peas of a brain can see that. That is why the President himself did not bother to consult the ANC leadership on any other reshuffle elements.
Was he being ethical himself? No, he was simply executing his strategy to capture the Treasury. It’s a pity that he didn’t get around to firing the incompetents, something that Muthambi couldn’t be bothered to comment on because it would point directly to her.
To its credit, the ANC leadership has raised this matter sharply with the president. Ministers like Muthambi and Bathabile Dlamini, who was found wanting by the constitutional court, were left untouched while performers were shown the door in the dead of night.
Now can Muthambi tell us what this all has to do with protecting white privilege? Why is it so easy to hide behind the lame race card when in fact incompetence is the issue?
Finally, Muthambi, who must share an adviser with Zuma, reduces the marches attracting thousands of South Africans to a racist placard comparing Zuma to a gorilla.
She goes on to argue, as Zuma did this past week, that the marches were fuelled by racist sentiment.
Her own comrades in the SACP have condemned this narrative as a bunch of lies.
Anyone who has the interests of this country at heart will never fuel the racist twaddle in this way. It is instructive that Zuma not so long ago said clearly that the issue of racism in our country is greatly exaggerated and that those perpetuating racism are an isolated majority.
Today when the protests are at his door he finds solace in a racist placard or two and wants to use that to divert attention form his loss of legitimacy in the face of many South Africans.
This is utter shame, more so being done on the anniversary of the assassination of the selfless Chris Hani.
Zuma has neither the credibility of Hani nor the selflessness of any other leader of the liberation movement before him.
So with all these lies being told to the emperor whose clothes are missing, who now are minions that Muthambi so brazenly refers to? It seems the road that is long is the road of introspection that the ANC must still traverse.
It is clear from this piece of intellectual ineptness displayed by Muthambi that there is little or no introspection going on in the ANC following the August 3, 2016 poll disaster.
The leaked minutes of the ANC’s national working committee put this question to bed once and for all.
The bizarre responses of defenders of the president on the disastrous consequences of his actions on the economy show you to what levels the ANC has descended.
The turning of this situation into a butt of jokes where pseudo-propagandists like Muthambi and Nomvula Mokonyane believe their own propaganda will only ensure that the ANC will be last to laugh in the next poll.
At this stage it does not seem like anything will save the ANC from a certain loss of power.
What Muthambi and her ilk have done successfully is to show the voting public the middle finger and flush down the toilet all the good work that the liberation movement has done in governing this country since 1994.
* Keswa is a businesswoman and writes in her personal capacity. Twitter @lebokeswa
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.