In my entire life (granted it's not a very long one) never have I seen the African National Congress in the self-destruct mode that it is in today. The ill-discipline, leadership battles and crass and conspicuous disregard of a value laden revolution has led to serious doubt among the comity about the ANC's ability to lead the nation to the proverbial Canaan, a point never doubted before by the majority of our people.  Perhaps let me refresh briefly about what the ANC represented for me.

The ANC has always been a revolutionary organization that has embodied the aspirations and values of the nation. Since its formation, the ANC ‘s vision has been the creation of a non- racist, non-sexist, democratic South Africa where all shall live side by side, free from economic exploitation and oppression of any kind.

To pursue this vision the ANC has had an abundance of leaders who have led with dignity, selflessly and embodied the values of our liberation. These men and women conducted themselves with dignity and respect and in return gave respectability and dignity to our revolution.

However the recent events in the ANC (umbutho we sizwe) and its leagues have made one to ponder the future. Coincidentally it also reminded me of an old biblical inscription Mene, Mene, Tekel Urphasin.

The good book intimates that it was during a feast by King Belshazzar, and his corrupt cronies that a hand appeared on the wall to inscribe these words MENE, MENE, TEKEL URPHASIN. The King's sin was to drink wine with holy Goblets taken from a temple in Jerusalem and thereby corrupted the very essence of what was holy and sacrosanct. His punishment was as the words mean MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting. Pharsin; Divided into two, which meant his Kingdom was to be dived into two.

With the ongoing internal political squabbles in the ANC played out publicly for all to see, I find myself wondering whether like Belshazzarr's kingdom the ANC's rule is nearing the end. Whether the ill-discipline and in fighting does not constitute the corruption of sacrosanct values laid by those who led before? And whether as a result we have not been weighed and measured and found wanting? Have we not attracted ingqumbo yeminyanya yethu (our ancestor's wrath). Is there anything that could be done to pluck the ANC from the dungeons of destruction and set it on a course familiar to the one of the ANC of the old?

The problem now is that we witness comrades tearing each apart in a no holds barred naked contest for power. Its anything goes, where we witness power or proximity to it as the primary occupation of comrades. We have witnessed with great dismay insults flying from all sides and with it the rise of intolerance.

We have asked the question whether is it correct to act so brazen in dealing with fellow comrades only because they share a different view about how the organization should proceed? We have concluded before that these ominous signs suggest a deep-seated problem of lack of ethical leadership, discipline and tolerance in the organization.

The problem is that the ANC of today behaves like spoilt rich children whose paterfamilias has just died and whose response is to tear each other apart as they fight for their share of the inheritance left by the old man. Needless to say their inheritance is not a product of their own hard work but rather of the efforts of the old man who built it. They are also oblivious to the fact that the unity of their family was the source of their strength and so instead of consolidating and forging ahead as a unit, each fights for their piece. They do this on the basis that they better represent their father and what he stood for than the other siblings, whose flaws they are quick to point out.

The organisational unity of the ANC has always been a source of strength for the movement since time in memorial. One leader after another has tried to protect and preserve the unity of the ANC no matter what the internal ideological contestations. There are exceptions such as President General Gumede who tried to balkanize the ANC along tribal lines and create an ANC of Natal - a phenomenon unheard off before. The ANC membership corrected that and removed him from power.

Further underscoring the point about unity being an essential ingredient for a successful revolution are Nelson Mandela's comments on the 1976 uprisings in his article entitled 'UNITE! MOBILISE! FIGHT ON! BETWEEN THE ANVIL OF UNITED MASS ACTION AND THE HAMMER OF THE ARMED STRUGGLE WE SHALL CRUSH APARTHEID. There Madiba says "This is not the time for the luxury of division and disunity. At all levels and in every walk of life we must close ranks. Within the ranks of the people's differences must be submerged to the achievement of a single goal -...."

In the current epoch, Mandela's injunction imposes a fundamental responsibility and duty on both ordinary membership and, most importantly, on the ANC leadership to take responsibility, correct problems and foster unity within the organisation. As ordinary members of the movement we are neither blind nor deaf. We are acutely aware that these problems manifest themselves primarily as a result of the struggle for power which in itself is inimical to the culture of the movement - or at least not in the vulgar manner and unprecedented heights we see it happening almost every day.

Again Mandela in 1997 at the Mafikeng conference counsels  "...here are the reigns of the movement - protect and guard its precious legacy; defend its unity and integrity as committed disciples of change; pursue its popular objectives like true revolutionaries who seek only to serve the nation..."  .

But alas, our comrades have done and continue to do the opposite. It is such a big wonder for me why our comrades are so quick to forget. Why are they so quick to forget that Apartheid was a psychological construct whose main design was to ensure that it buttressed a sort of inferiority complex which also entails distrust and disunity among the natives? This would ensure that we are fragmented and the achievement of our lofty ideals remains a fantasy.

Franz Fanon in the Wretched of the Earth points out that our challenge as natives is that the "settler paints the native as the quintessence of evil. . .He is the corrosive element , destroying all that comes near him ; he is the deforming element, disfiguring all that has to do with beauty or morality... the unconscious and irretrievable instrument of blind forces.."

Fanon's breakdown of what he calls settler mentality and akin to apartheid mentality underscores precisely the perplexity the nation feels about the conduct of the ANC currently. For example the current narrative from the White opposition assisted by the fourth estate is that we Africans are corrupt, cannot rule and in essence are the ‘deforming element destroying everything that is beautiful...'

In other words for the White establishment all that is bad and evil is expected and as such we cannot be trusted with such a beautiful gift of a "miracle" state as Mandela as sought to achieve. In their narrative they deliberately use the Mandela excpetionalism to extricate him from the rest of his people and collective and to demonstrate that he is different from all of us.

If we know all of this whence for do our comrades act in such a manner barely 18 years after freedom? Shouldn't our response therefore in the pursuance of our struggle be the direct opposite to the narrative of the white establishment?

And alas while of all these great mutterings and shenanigans occupy our center space the barbarians are already at the gate. We have seen a consolidation of the white establishment. They have effectively frustrated our efforts to transform our economy and our country. They have successfully cast doubt on our ability to govern and needless to say by our conduct we have been unconscious accomplices.

They connive everyday day in dark corners to reverse our hard fought revolutionary gains and even utilizing courts to push their evil agenda of apartheid of a different type. They even feel emboldened to call us refugees in our motherland as the apartheid government did in days past. And yet not even a single old man or woman dares to fire a warning shot and warn them that they are provoking our wrath. This is because our grey-hairs and revolutionary youth are occupied by internal political sadism of the worst order.

In the same breath while these fights occupy our center space our people continue to be plagued by the triple challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality. This has reached scary proportions to a point it threatens a revolt against a popular government of the people. As when we started in 1912, our people continue to cry "Lizalise idinga lakho Thixo Nkosi yenyaniso" (fulfill thy promise oh God).

They cry because they are as yet to truly taste the freedom the elite boasts about or even the liberation enjoyed by the former oppressor. To them darkness and gloom are the descriptive symbols of their everyday life. They wallow in despair and it's getting worse now when their last hope, the hope of the ancestors the ANC, has been torn asunder by selfish greed and alpha male syndrome of those in leadership.

And so it is that "...Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, the blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned; the best lack of all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity." William Butler Yeats: Second Coming.

Yeats's words resonate quite well given the trajectory - or rather quagmire - we find ourselves in. More disturbing is the absence of men and women of salt who will stand for the truth for the benefit of the old party of Tambo regardless of personal gain or which slate they support.

If men and women of such caliber were still there they would act in such a manner as to debunk Yeats's observation that when anarchy is loosed upon the world the best lack conviction. Equally they would work zealously to quash the passionate intensity of the worst.

Zemnk'inkomo Magwalandini!!!!!!

Unathi Bongco is an Advocate and a member of the ANCYL and the ANC. He writes in his personal capacity

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