The ANC needs to take seriously its responsibility as the leader of society
The South African Constitutional Court’s intervention to ensure that 17 million social grants recipients get their money at the end of the month and the North Gauteng High Court’s judgement that said the appointment of General Berning Ntlemeza as the head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) was invalid ,should give the ANC and its government some reasons to pause and reflect.
The Judiciary’s rectification of these two glaring and avoidable mistakes proves that there are serious capacity problems in government, and unless they are addressed, there will be more difficulties ahead. It is obvious that these mistakes are all associated with the disrespect for the constitution and rule of law by some government departments and political deployees. These existing internal challenges in government and the erosion of revolutionary morality values have a potential to irrevocably weaken the movement and its government.
It cannot be acceptable that the people of South Africa have to look to the Judiciary and the Public Protector’s Office for leadership because our democratic government is limping from one crisis to another ,and the Legislative arm of the state is sleeping at the wheel. The National Parliament has been doing a lot of fire fighting lately and this can only mean that somewhere, somehow they stopped paying attention or they abandoned their mandate for political expediency.
While, we understand that most if not all of the challenges that are facing our society are part of an enduring legacy of centuries of colonial and capitalist oppression, the ANC and its government cannot afford to continue committing these tactical mistakes.
The ANC should make sure that all its deployees are instructed to work properly within the ambit of the law and that they avoid scoring unnecessary own goals by defending the indefensible. The movement also needs to intensify the fight against corruption across all spheres of government and act decisively as directed by its 53rd Mangaung Conference.
The ANC needs to close the widening trust deficit between its government and the people by holding all of its deployees accountable for their failures and also by elevating the standards it holds them to. Poor people and workers need to see action that proves that the ANC remains the only credible movement that carries their hopes and aspirations in this country, and that it is still capable of driving a thoroughgoing socio-economic transformation to eradicate the triple challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment.
COSATU remains totally convinced that the best way to invalidate the much repeated anecdote and narrative that the ANC government, like most liberation movements, has reached its 20 year expiry date is to sort out the subjective failures and put people first.
Statement issued by COSATU, 18 March 2017
