The ANC’s rogue elite will be rejected at the polls
The latest insult from the ANC NWC seems to have left multitudes of South Africans - especially the poor – without any doubt that the current ‘ANC’ no longer cares if we vote for them or not. In fact, they have told us before that they don’t need our dirty votes. Yesterday’s ANC NWC meeting and the events that transpired at Germiston Stadium were a clear challenge by a certain ANC rogue elite to the principled general members of the ANC to either toe their corrupt line, or ship out of the ANC. As the rogue elite that has successfully captured the ANC they will stop at nothing to protect their pernicious interests.
In fact the poor masses become an inconvenient irritation that must be dismissed with contempt if their interests come into conflict with the interests of the rogue elite. Accordingly, the general ANC membership and millions of poor masses of this country are easily disposable if the economic interests of the rogue elite are under threat. As a politically disempowered voting base that should be grateful to even expect payment of grants from the ANC government, the poor is forced to just accept the ANC insults and condescending statements without question.
In this regard and to maintain their stranglehold over them, it seems the ANC is content keeping the poor as politically disempowered voting fodder that must be abused at will, for they owe their liberation and social grants to the mighty ANC. To the ANC rogue elite, the poor is just an appendage stamp to lay claim to, and abuse, the resources of the state.
The struggle idealism about the people sharing in the country’s wealth is used by the ANC rogue elite as a legitimizing currency under the looting banner of ‘now is our time to eat!’ Under these circumstances, and as I have consistently argued, the interests of the ANC rogue elite are arrogantly and forcefully presented to all of us as if they’re the interests of the poor.
Further to legitimize the interests of the rogue elite, the poor are thus expected to repay their debt of gratitude to their liberators and benevolent rulers by pretending and professing that the interests of the ANC rogue elite are indeed their interests. Consequently and instead of advocating for their interests the poor are mobilized (as happened at Germiston stadium yesterday) to defend the perennial scandals that are borne of the interests of the ANC rogue elite.
In this context the state and other underhanded propaganda machineries are also unleashed to convince and coerce those doubting the agenda of the ANC rogue elite. Through official state ceremonies and other questionable platforms, our rulers pontificate patronizing speeches to the poor, whilst demonizing those of us alert to their nefarious agenda.
Accordingly, we have now reached a defining moment where the ANC rogue elite are also prepared to dismantle the very democratic project currently underway in South Africa. The seismic events of the past few days are a pointed indication that the battle lines are now drawn between those who are on the side of democracy, the constitution and the poor people of South Africa; and those standing diametrically opposed to these forces, armed with their evil agenda of corruption, lawlessness and the dictatorship of the corrupt rogue elite.
This should of necessity be the fundamental reason to galvanise, organize and act in unity against the corrupt ANC rogue elite that seeks to subjugate our constitutional democracy to their crass, corrupt interests. When the ANC fails at every turn to ensure that it listens to our voices as ordinary citizens and members, then they should know that many of us are now prepared to dump the ANC at the next polls. They should know that as the ANC support base we are fast becoming a fluid voting market for other political parties that will have the decency to listen to us.
The undeniable truth is that the ANC has now lost its overarching, coherent organizational structure that should define it as an organisation. It has become a piecemeal, loose and incoherent structure that cannot hold anyone or anything to account. There are no consequences for the political delinquency of its members deployed in parliament and/ or government; and that there is no recourse for aggrieved and upstanding ANC members. Because any living organisation should at least have a functional mechanism to ensure consequences and recourse for its members as a fundamental ingredient for its existence, lack thereof signifies demise.
That is why the ANC has now lost total control over the government it purports to lead. The ANC officials have been reduced to issuing contradictory statements and kowtowing apologies in defense of the rot that has engulfed the government. We now seem to have a rogue conglomerate of the politico-business axis running the government for their own elite interests. This conglomerate is accountable to no one but itself. It despises all the institutional mechanisms designed to ensure a clean and accountable government, hence the sustained attack on these mechanisms.
In conclusion and unlike any other time before, the ANC is now faced with the real threat that we, the members and supporters of the ANC, are not going to vote for it in the coming elections if they continue protecting the rogue elements in their midst. I spent more than half of my life in the ANC, but will not spend the rest of it being part of an organization that protects the worst elements at the expense of itself and the revolution.
Mzukisi Makatse is a soon-to-be former member of the ANC. He writes in his personal capacity.
