The past two weeks have been very interesting in the South African body politic. Our African National Congress (ANC) Secretary General has been implicated in a plot to remove our ANC President, comrade Cyril Ramaphosa. This alleged plot is part of a political hangover from Nasrec ANC Conference that saw Jacob Zuma and his merry band of political friends losing their grip on the levers of political power – and as significantly their control of the country’s purse strings. The latter is obviously a source of panic and desperation.
Accordingly, the Zuma brigade has demonstrated to all and sundry that they will fight tooth and nail to regain this lost ground. After all, a lot was invested in their political project to subjugate South Africa and its people to their project of self-enrichment. They are now vengeful and desperate to undo the outcomes of the Nasrec ANC Conference.
Theirs is an unmasked political warfare that will be fought dirty and without consideration to the rules of engagement. This is somewhat understandable because they have nothing to lose anymore. The political stakes are high and will be raised even higher. Therefore with everything considered, the question is what to do when faced with this kind of political enemy from within?
The first thing to do for the ANC is to recognise and boldly pronounce that post Nasrec, a group of political incorrigibles led by Ace Magashule and Jacob Zuma immediately defined themselves outside of the ANC and its collective leadership elected in that conference. This was demonstrated through statements made by Magashule contradicting the official positions of the ANC. This behaviour has continued ever since, with the latest being the factional plotting meeting in Durban, and Jacob Zuma’s strange but not unexpected pronouncements on the State Capture phenomenon.
These are all inter-connected political theatrics, orchestrated to demonstrate that there is in fact another ‘ANC’ in town. This ‘other ANC’ is bandied about as the true ‘ANC’ whose commitment to the radical economic transformation surpasses that of the ANC which emerged post Nasrec. In effect, this ‘other ANC’ represents a splinter group that formed immediately after their defeat in December, but decided to stay inside the party to suck the life out of it and its leadership. They pose a greater danger than splinter groups like COPE and EFF, as these are clearly identifiable and are outside of the ANC.
The second thing to do is for the ANC to grow political balls and officially identify Jacob Zuma as the main culprit in the state capture crime of treason. The available information, evidence and Zuma’s pronouncements point to this fact. It is now common cause that Jacob Zuma allowed, facilitated, sustained and defended the subjugation of state machinery and its resources to the Guptas. He did all this because, as he claims, ‘Guptas were the only ones prepared to help my children when they could not find jobs’. But we know that he also orchestrated this treasonous scheme so that he and his family and friends could perpetually live a life of opulence in the face of generalised misery of our people.
Therefore, the ANC cannot prevaricate and behave civilly when it is under open attack from this splinter group from within. It has to use everything it has at its disposal in order to fend off this internal political onslaught. This it must do because politics is about power, and power concedes nothing without struggle. The scorched earth political strategy adopted by this ‘other ANC’ of Jacob Zuma and Ace Magashule must be met with the concomitant political action from the true ANC that emerged post Nasrec.
The ANC cannot approach a gun fight armed with a stick. To save the ANC from demise occasioned by this internal plague, its leadership and members must be prepared to use very strong political detergents to cleanse the ANC. This must, of necessity, include expelling those whose value system and political interests are totally inimical to the very existence of the ANC. The rough and tumble of politics demand this type of action sometimes and I believe that that time has arrived for the ANC. People must see the real ANC stand up to the political bandits that turned the ANC against the masses over the past ten years.
It is this kind of tough political action against those who sacrificed the whole country at the altar of voracious greed that will improve the chances of the ANC in next year’s elections. We advise this because it will be virtually impossible to try maintain internal political order and stability in the ANC when there is an internal splinter group that overtly works to undermine everything we do to win the 2019 elections. The sooner this splinter group is cut loose, the better for the ANC to focus its energies on the upcoming elections.
History has demonstrated that it is better to fight a known and identifiable opposition that is outside, than a covert opposition inside the organisation. Whatever credibility the splinter group might have whilst inside the ANC, will soon vanish once it is cut loose and ejected from the ANC. The masses trust the organisation ANC, not its individual members and leaders whose commitment to the long-term goals of the ANC and masses ay be tempered by exogenous personal interests.
Lastly, it cannot be overstated that unity for its own sake cannot work for the long term interests of the ANC. More than any other time before, the ANC need organisational unity of purpose over and above purposeless unity of self-interested opposites. We say this because the latter is nothing more than just convenience of congruent opposite forces deciding to cease hostilities in order not to disturb each other’s personal accumulation agendas. That kind of unity is obviously not for the benefit of the ANC and must be rejected. True organisational unity of purpose must be forged around a common political programme and tough political action to dismantle the enemy within the ANC. With that the future of the ANC will be guaranteed.
Mzukisi Makatse is a member of the ANC. He writes in his personal capacity.
