The navel-gazing at the ANC’s Luthuli House is fast having far-reaching ramifications for the country.
By now South Africans have come to realise that when the ANC sneezes, the whole country catches pneumonia.
Since coming to power in 1994 the party has not known peace. The party of John Langalibalele Dube, Pixley ka Isaka Seme, Albert Luthuli, Oliver Reginald Tambo and Nelson Mandela has been reduced to a battle ground.
The once-glorious movement was voted in overwhelmingly by the majority of South Africans in the first democratic elections on April 27, 1994. From the onset, what looked like a fight between those from exile and those who remained fighting apartheid flames in the country, soon degenerated into what seemed to be ethnic divisions – amaXhosa versus amaZulu.
From then, it has been a downward spiral, with factions and slates, especially after every elective conference taking place every five years to elect the party’s leadership. Since its 52nd national conference in Polokwane in 2007, every ANC leadership has emerged bruised and almost bloodied.
Currently the party’s secretary-general, Ace Magashule, is facing corruption charges over the R250 million Free State asbestos roofing scandal and is out on R200 000 bail pending the matter going to trial in the high court in Bloemfontein.
The party is now facing another mountain to climb, to see Magashule stepping aside at month end pending his case, in line with the resolutions of the top structures of the ANC. He seems reluctant to do so. As if that is not enough, almost everyone in the governing party is tainted or implicated in some form of corruption.
The Number One citizen is embroiled in the CR17 campaign funding controversy, refusing to unseal the files that will shed light on who funded the campaign that propelled him to Union Buildings. While the ANC is embroiled in its own internal power struggles, the governance of the country has taken a back seat. We have a shambolic Covid-19 vaccine roll-out, negative economic growth, a struggling economy, high unemployment, decaying social fabric and many other societal ills.
Just when will the ANC govern?
The Star