Don't feel sorry for the mess the ANC is in - it's entirely its own fault

It is tempting to feel some sympathy for the African National Congress these days. Since December 20 last year the party’s scandal-soaked former leader, Jacob Zuma, has been sitting malevolently in the Union Buildings, thinking up ways to defy and derail his successor in the party and cling on to state power.

The party’s new leadership, wracked with divisions, has been unable to articulate a clear view of how it intends to deal with the elephant in the room: Zuma.

There is no need to feel sorry for the ANC, though. It is responsible for the mess it finds itself in.

For 20 years many inside and outside the party have argued that the period between the ANC’s five-yearly conferences and national elections is too long. Our next set of national and provincial elections is in about 17 months – meaning that a leader who has been ousted or has seen out his two terms in the party, as Zuma has, now sits in state leadership while his putative successor waits around gagging to get on the horse.

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