EDITORIAL | You’ve got what you want, Mabuyane. Now give us what we want

The ANC in the Eastern Cape has demonstrated that it is capable of being committed to an objective for a longer period, work until after midnight, deny itself food and sleep until the goal is achieved. 

The goal, in the last few days, was the pursuit of an intraparty election victory by a cohort led by premier Oscar Mabuyane, who retained his position as ANC provincial chairperson. In other words, the single-minded pursuit of the aforementioned goal was of self-interest by the most senior leaders in the Eastern Cape.

Is it too much, then, to ask the same leadership to sustain this dogged pursuit in, perhaps, a fresh bid to ensure that the province is rid of the many service delivery challenges that ordinary residents face? 

That it is the province hardest hit by poverty and unemployment, is plain. That children have to walk long distances, cross rickety structures that pass for bridges, is common cause. That hospitals and clinics struggle to provide the bare minimum of services that any public benefit health facility should provide, is known.

And so, is it not shameful, then, that when it comes to what serves the leaders or, perhaps, people in positions of power, everything gets moved until the outcome, in this case the re-election of Mabuyane, is achieved? The point of leadership, we are often reminded, is to serve others, to spend inordinate amounts of time and resources not for the benefit of the self. Others call this servant leadership. 

Is it too much, then, to ask the same leadership to sustain this dogged pursuit in, perhaps, a fresh bid to ensure that the province is rid of the many service delivery challenges that ordinary residents face? 

But, whatever it is, the beneficiaries are often, as ought to be, the poor, indigent and vulnerable. The Eastern Cape has plenty of these. It is these who ought to keep Mabuyane and his team up at night finding solutions. That this show of commitment was not done until Mabuyane and his faction needed to fight for their positions, is an indictment not just on the ANC, but on many ordinary people who keep it in power simply for reasons related to its historical achievements rather than resolving current challenges. 

Nelson Mandela Bay is about to run out of water. It is unfathomable how such a large city, now run by the DA in a province controlled by Mabuyane, will function without water in almost a month’s time. The local airport and major facilities that rely on water will grind to a halt. Schools, including Nelson Mandela University, will close. The implications are massive. But when will we see Mabuyane leading a team of local and provincial politicians and civil servants in displaying the sort of dogged commitment we just witnessed during his re-election in resolving this water crisis?

After his victory, Mabuyane said he knew that the “people of the Eastern Cape, including members of the ANC in the Eastern Cape, would love to see the president going forward. The country needs the calibre of a president we have. This issue of trust deficit, the concerns that people have been raising, these issues have been out there.”

The issues Mabuyane has raised relate to succession and the ANC’s power battles. It would have been great to link his retention of power to how ordinary people, including those facing a water day zero, will benefit. 

Ramaphosa, in his closing remarks, did this, reminding delegates that the country lost over 2-million jobs because of the coronavirus pandemic. He asked delegates to work hard to ensure that the economy is re-energised. 

He knew the right things to say. We can’t exactly say the same thing of Mabuyane, much less expect him, in the next few years, to do the job he failed to do in the Eastern Cape in the last few years while at the helm.

What is critical though is that we now know, thanks to the conference that saw Mabuyane retain power, the level of commitment he and his colleagues could unleash. Though we are not holding our collective breath, we believe the people of the Eastern Cape, and indeed throughout the country, do deserve this level of commitment to service delivery issues too.