“Phansi nge corruption, phansi!” shouted Paul Mashatile into the microphone, expecting a resounding “phaansi!” from the audience as an affirmation of their party’s stated intention to root out graft.
But in a hall of more than 1,600 voting delegates as well as hundreds of other guests, only a handful joined the ANC treasurer-general in denouncing corruption.
The others were not interested, having long convinced themselves the “fight against corruption” is a euphemism for fighting their beloved former president, Jacob Zuma, and many of his erstwhile associates who also have trouble with the law.
President Cyril Ramaphosa must have noticed how delegates responded to Mashatile’s chant on Friday, because when his chance came to address the same KZN ANC conference on Sunday afternoon he, for the first time since becoming the ANC leader, spoke for more than an hour without mentioning the fight against corruption.
He was there to try to please a hostile audience just four months before the next elective conference and he was never going to risk antagonising them on their home turf.
But expect him to devote a huge chunk of his speech to this subject when he opens the ANC’s policy conference this weekend, where, in the presence of all the other party provinces, he is likely to have a more responsive and sympathetic audience.
KZN ANC, led by new chair Sboniso Duma and provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo, is going to the policy conference with the objective of reversing one of Ramaphosa’s achievements since taking over from Zuma as ANC president in 2017: the step-aside rule.
KZN citizens want jobs, business opportunities, shelter, clean running water and reliable electricity, proper roads and safe communities. All of this could be achieved by electing competent and qualified individuals dedicated to serving residents.
They want the step-aside code scrapped, arguing the rule, which says those who have been criminally charged should vacate their elected positions and shouldn’t stand for any other until their names are cleared, has been used to sideline the likes of suspended secretary-general Ace Magashule and former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede.
The fight over the rule at the upcoming ANC policy conference will be a test of strength and influence of the new KZN leadership in the broader ANC ahead of the December conference. If they manage to humiliate Ramaphosa by getting the majority of delegates at the policy conference to agree that the rule, so central to the president’s bid to clean the party’s image, be abolished, his rivals would be emboldened to challenge him for the top job come December.
Though there has been a huge realignment of ANC factions across the country in recent years, with most moving away from past labels such as “CR17” and “RET”, the KZN conference showed the province is still very much Zuma territory and that its branches are eager to roll back the setback they suffered when Ramaphosa won the party presidency in 2017.
The million-membership drive that the ANC embarked on during the Jacob Zuma years attracted not only citizens who joined the party to help build a better SA but also brought in all sorts of unsavoury characters.
This recruitment drive did not go hand in hand with political education. Hence you have individuals who have risen high in the leadership structures of the party but can’t spell Freedom Charter or articulate the party’s founding principles without sloganeering.
This has created a membership that is easily manipulated and is then shepherded to conferences not to influence any policy ideas, but merely to vote for a particular line-up as directed by their handlers.
That is why in 2022, you still have ANC members who regard it as a revolutionary act to sing the “wenzeni uZuma” song at a time when the ANC is heading to what, pundits predict, will be the most difficult election for the governing party.
Zikalala and his provincial executive should also shoulder the blame for the state of the ANC in that province. The stance that the ANC in KZN took during, before and after the July riots had a huge impact on where the party finds itself. Party leaders failed to make unpopular decisions by insisting on the importance of the rule of law — and telling their members no citizen is above the law.
Instead the PEC developed a document that was extremely harsh on the national leadership of the ANC and stopped short of saying President Cyril Ramaphosa should have intervened to stop Jacob Zuma from going to prison. Even after Zuma was jailed, the party continued pandering to Zuma’s supporters by asking Ramaphosa to arrange a special presidential pardon.
This sent out a message that the violent protests against Zuma were justified and gave authority to the false claims that Zuma is a victim of a captured judiciary.
There is no sign that Duma will bring a departure from this toxic approach to politics.
On Sunday, when he got up to call for calm as the rowdy crowd kept singing before Ramaphosa took the stage, he told them the president would be informed about their unhappiness with how Zuma was treated.
Hopefully Duma and his new leadership divorce themselves from the Zuma politics.
The people of KZN want to rebuild their province after the senseless riots and floods that damaged their province.
KZN citizens want jobs, business opportunities, shelter, clean running water and reliable electricity, proper roads and safe communities.
All this could be achieved by electing competent and qualified individuals dedicated to serving residents.
Most importantly, people accused of stealing taxpayers’ money are incapable of delivering the needs mentioned above. That is why Duma and his delegation are going to find themselves on the wrong side of the debate on the step-aside rule.
Surely any party that wants to be taken seriously by voters would remove anyone charged with stealing from the coffers. Is that too much to ask?
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