EDITORIAL | Grow up, Mbalula! The ANC secretary-general’s verbal diarrhoea is doing the party no favours

Scholars say some people grow up only physically. In other instances, their brains develop much slower than their physical development. Later on, a process of degeneration sets in.

In the case of the ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, it’s difficult to tell what causes his verbal diarrhoea. He is hard to discern. It could be anything between degeneration, mental saturation point (no growth possible) or a simple case of asymmetric growth between his physical form and his mental faculties. Or poor communication. Whatever it is, it requires urgent attention.

Who, in their correct mental state, tells potential voters that they must be grateful to have water taps — even if the taps don’t produce any water — ahead of an important election?

The ANC, to be clear, faces the prospect of losing, at the very least, Gauteng province, the country’s economic hub, in the general elections expected in less than a year. The ANC already does not govern the Western Cape, the country’s second biggest economic centre. In KwaZulu-Natal, it is worried about a resurgent Inkatha Freedom Party in relation to its continued governance of that province.

Nationally, the ANC faces justified criticism for poor performance in many areas. These include the country’s poor economic performance, with the jobs data released by Stats SA on Tuesday indicating marginal growth. Put differently, the data shows the country is battling to make a dent against unemployment that was made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Further, the country faces rampant crime, with murder and rape statistics enough to shame a self-respecting police minister into resignation. But, of course, ours, Bheki Cele, suffers no such. In addition, our country can’t provide predictable electricity supply to enable key economic players to create jobs. As if that is not enough, a new spectre of intermittent water disruption is beginning to set in. The challenges, for a party struggling to provide basic services, are many and varied. In a sense, it’s all hands on deck for a ruling party facing it’s biggest existential battle.

You now have taps in your yards. Before you used to stand in queues for a tap. Yes, there may not be water but you have a tap inside your yard delivered by the ANC.

—  ANC secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula

It is in this context that Mbalula, under pressure to explain why citizens must accept diminishing returns on their trust of the ANC, responded in a way that made many drop their jaws. He said: “You now have taps in your yards. Before you used to stand in queues for a tap. Yes, there may not be water, but you have a tap inside your yard delivered by the ANC. It’s very easy to be opposition. You form a political party and say what you like, but it’s difficult to be government.”

Decoded, Mbalula is essentially saying that voters must be grateful for infrastructure that delivers no benefit to them. The ANC’s performance must only be judged against that of the racist National Party, whose mission was to oppress black people and deny them basic rights like access to water. Mbalula is saying the people of Hammanskraal, whose relatives recently died from curable waterborne diseases must accept the sludge coming out of their taps because the ANC can’t do better. Mbalula is further saying to the people of Giyani, who have waited for water for years, that when they eventually get the taps, they must expect them to be dry for longer periods because simply having taps delivered by an ANC government is a great deal.

We know no bigger insult from a liberation movement.

For measure, Mbalula also said “our people have always been under load-shedding” until the ANC came into power. Of course. The point is not to keep them without electricity. The point is also not to justify load-shedding by invoking apartheid standards and generally behaving as if South Africans are done a huge favour when they intermittently get supplied power.

But because we know that Mbalula is not the ANC, we assume that the ANC, as a party, possibly has suffered the ignominy of having its publicly communicated good intentions of a better life for all being poorly communicated by a secretary-general whose mental faculties are failing to appreciate the context within which his party is fighting for survival.

Mbalula further told those who challenged his warped thoughts on social media: “We liberated our people, including yourself. That’s why you are on Twitter. You didn’t have to fight. Just seatback (sic) and be a critic.”

There is much more that can be said about the intellectual prowess and public comportment of a secretary-general of a proud liberation movement. Such esteemed people don’t release the sort of sludge coming from Mbalula’s mouth.

The above quotes — and they are not the only ones — must worry the ANC. Mbalula says it’s easy to be an opposition party, yet what’s lost to his great brain is how his unthoughtful remarks make it easy. If the ANC is going to rely on Mbalula to communicate its messages in the period leading up to the next general elections, it will pay dearly.

It is one thing to communicate poorly, but quite another to insult a whole nation and still feel entitled to be voted for. That is irrational. We might say to Mbalula — grow up (not literally) — but we wonder if he will get it, or, do what he does best: unleash more expletives!