African Queen

The people did not sell out the ANC. The ANC sold out the people first, by failing to deliver the simplest of services, and in doing so it sold out itself. And it did this even after they had given it chance after chance. The chickens have come home to roost. The warning signs have been there for the last 15 years. In the 2006 local government elections the ANC had 64% of the vote, up from 59% in 2000. In 2011 there was a slight decline to 62%, and it has been downhill from there. The ANC must die for it to live again. The ANC has a document called Through the Eye of a Needle. It outlines what an ideal leader of the ANC should be. One of the points it makes is this, and I quote: “Those in leadership positions should unite and guide the movement to be at the head of the process of change. They should lead the movement in its mission to organise and inspire the masses to be their own liberators. They should lead the task of governance with diligence. And, together, they should reflect continuity of a revolutionary tradition and renewal which sustains the movement in the long-term.” I want to dwell briefly on one line: “They should lead the task of governance with diligence.” I don’t think many of us can say the ANC has governed with diligence. Go to many, many townships and rural communities and it is as if the people have been forgotten. People jump over faeces-infested water on their way to work. And then we wonder why so many decided to stay away from the polls. If people chose not to vote at all rather than vote for another party, it means they are not convinced by the other parties. But it might also mean something else: that they are waiting to be inspired by the ANC, by action rather than slogans, so that they can vote for it again. There is still room. But I can assure you, not with the ANC as it is and not with its current leadership. The best way forward for the party is an outsider, not someone who is seen as an insider. Point 35 of the document says, “A leader should constantly seek to improve his capacity to serve the people.” Unfortunately, many of our leaders care less about improving their capacity to serve than about improving their chances of leading again. Some entered politics to loot, not to serve. It shows. Point 37 goes on to say, “A leader should lead by example. He should be above reproach in his political and social conduct – as defined by our revolutionary morality. Through force of example, he should act as a role model to ANC members and non-members alike. Leading a life that reflects commitment to the strategic goals of the national democratic revolution includes not only being free of corrupt practices; it also means actively fighting against corruption.” Instead, over the years the corruption got worse and the thieves became more brazen. The economy stagnated. Service delivery became a mechanism through which officials could steal as much as they could, for the simple purpose of enriching themselves. Thabo Mbeki put it this way in his speech at the 4th Annual Nelson Mandela Lecture: “Thus every day and during every hour of our time beyond sleep, the demons embedded in our society, that stalk us at every minute, seem always to beckon each one of us towards a realisable dream and nightmare. With every passing second, they advise, with rhythmic and hypnotic regularity, get rich! get rich! get rich! And thus has it come about that many of us accept that our common natural instinct to escape from poverty is but the other side of the same coin on whose reverse side are written the words at all costs, get rich!” Perhaps I should add to what the former president said: “At all costs, get rich! Even if it is at the expense of the very people I am meant to serve.” That is what has happened to the ANC. The system is broken at almost every level. It has been so diligently reshaped for looting that a good person will break themselves trying to fix it. That, it turns out, is the one thing the ANC has done with diligence. I began by referencing Through the Eye of a Needle. The title comes from the Book of Matthew, chapter 19, verse 24. A rich young ruler asks Jesus what he must do to get to heaven. Jesus tells him what to give up. The young man walks away because he is not prepared to give those things up, and Jesus turns to the crowd and says, “And again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” The needle Jesus was speaking of is said not to be the one you are thinking of. The “eye of the needle”, so the story goes, was a small gate in Jerusalem, opened only after the main gate was closed for the night. A camel could pass through it only if it was stripped of its baggage and made to stoop, almost to crawl, to get in. A leader, then, should be willing to put down his baggage and get on his knees before he is worthy of leading the ANC. Most of ours would rather keep the baggage and lose the gate. In an earlier verse Jesus says, “Not everyone can accept this word.” The ANC needs to be broken in order to fix itself. But the people who lead it now are not the ones to do the breaking, and they are certainly not the ones to do the fixing.