Campaigning halts delivery

Justice Malala: In October last year, the former minister of education, Kader Asmal, slammed Deputy Minister of Police Fikile Mbalula's idea of militarising the police service as "craziness".

He said the idea smacks of "low-level political decision-making".

Asmal was right, of course. But he lost that battle. Today police Commissioner Bheki Cele luxuriates in the nonsensical title of "General". Cele, who last week displayed his buffoonery in Parliament as he offended Fifa (who responded by calling him a liar) and the US government (he said President Barack Obama's visit is a headache for him), does not even get the irony of the situation: he may be a general today, but he is the same old "shoot to kill" buffoon he was yesterday.

Crucially, being called "General" has not made Cele move with any speed to tell us what happened on the night Olga Kekana, the young Hammanskraal woman killed in a hail of bullets by trigger-happy cops heeding his "shoot to kill" injunction, went out with friends.

Being called "General" does not make you more efficient.

Asmal was reprimanded by the ANC for other comments made in that speech. Regarding Mbalula, he also said: "I have this former head of the youth league who aspires to be secretary-general of the ANC. Ha, really, I hope I won't be alive then."

Mblalula responded that Asmal's comments were "nothing more than hot air from a disgruntled individual who refuses to come to terms with reality".

The Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association said: "We advise Kader Asmal to go to the nearest cemetery and die."

Well, recent events show that Asmal's words resonate far further in the ANC than many believe. Last weekend Nomvula Mokonyane, the Gauteng premier, challenged Paul Mashatile for chairmanship of the ANC in the province at its conference in Tshwane. Over the past few months intense lobbying took place.

On Mokonyane's side as she campaigned, emerged Mbalula and Julius Malema, the ANC Youth League president. The Mbalula camp was set on winning Gauteng so it could show off the country's most prosperous province as being in support of Mbalula's campaign to oust Gwede Mantashe from the secretary-generalship of the ANC.

Malema, Mbalula and ANCYL leadership in Gauteng showed face at the conference last weekend and lobbied hard for Mokonyane. Yet something funny happened on the way to Tshwane: Mashatile courted and won the support of the Congress of SA Trade Unions, who want the Malema crowd booted out.

Crucially, though, it is the words of the delegates outside and inside the conference which mattered.

"Mbalula and Malema are running instead of walking. They've become over-confident and are holding the ANC to ransom. Every time someone points out the error of their ways, they try to intimidate them by telling them they will kick them out when conference comes. We are tired of them," said a delegate.

I heard this refrain again and again from delegates. These were the words of people who wanted to draw a line against the Mbalula-Malema axis. Their only problem, which was openly acknowledged, was that Mashatile was the only candidate they had, despite the many questions around his tenure as finance MEC in Gauteng.

That did not matter, though. The point is there is a groundswell of opposition inside the ANC against the Mbalula-Malema axis. This axis, supported by people like Tony Yengeni, wants to see people like Mantashe kicked out and replaced with far less disciplined individuals.

Eight months ago, when Asmal made his comments about Mbalula, this grouping seemed invincible. Malema was virtually running the country while President Jacob Zuma seemed absent. The Asmals of this world were lone voices.

Things are no longer that way. As the ANC's December 2012 conference draws closer, some leaders are waking up and smelling the coffee. They don't like what they see.

In Limpopo, Malema is losing favour fast. His youth league colleagues are booing him at meetings. That means Mbalula's ability to command a majority support base there is in jeopardy. The same is happening in the Eastern Cape.

In Gauteng support has already been lost and the province will go to the 2012 conference firmly behind Mantashe.

This does not mean the battle is lost for Mbalula. It just means the battle is enjoined. If he wants to unseat Mantashe, he will have to fight - hard - for it.

The ANC campaign season has arrived. It means the work of delivery will stall over the next 18 months. South Africa cannot afford such lethargy, of course. Yet that is what we are entering now.