The latest spat between, Thoko Didiza and John Steenhuisen, the previous and current ministers of agriculture, is a free lesson in public relations — the dos and don’ts. It is also, hopefully, going to awaken the ANC from its comfort zone.
Let’s recap. Steenhuisen has gone gung-ho, revealing what he wants us to believe is his exposure of impropriety at Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP), a government-owned vaccine producer.
In typical Steenhuisen and DA style, both the party and its leader are making headlines with their attempt to show how they are cracking the whip in their role in the government of national unity (GNU), and exposing the failure of the ANC to deal with malfeasance.
Except, this is not true. As it turns out, the matter was already investigated under Didiza, as reflected in OBP’s annual report and shared with Steenhuisen during his predecessor’s handover to him.
Why then would Steenhuisen present this as his success? It is called political persuasion. The other word for it, historically badly used and misunderstood, is propaganda. In truth, and in its truest meaning, propaganda is nothing but the political art of winning hearts and minds.
One of the unintended consequences — maybe the right word is benefits — of the GNU is how it may just awaken the ANC from its slumber of self-assurance. At least, so I hope.
How? You may ask. Even though under its rule so much has gone wrong, the truth is, so much has already gone right in the last 30 years. But the ANC never made it its culture to tell the story of its successes, except in defence of criticism or during elections. In between, the ANC believed its work would speak for itself. Well, it didn’t.
The ANC also showed poor appreciation of the art of public relations (and propaganda). Over all these years, one thing the ANC hardly communicated was cracking down on wrongdoing. We will never know for sure why this was the case, but I suspect part of the reason was reluctance to oppose their own as bad or rotten.
While the ANC would sometimes, maybe even often, attend to any misdeeds through all sorts of structures in government, parliament and inside the party itself, it would keep mum about the results, satisfied that it has “solved the matter”.
The ANC also, for all these years, developed an acute allergy to acting against its members who did wrong. Very rarely a minister, premier or MEC would be asked to step aside (or down) when implicated in wrong deeds. Some public servants — obviously whose party membership was intact — would escape scrutiny, and where found to have wronged, moved from one department to another.
But in fairness, the ANC also acted against many of its own, sometimes harshly, often with nothing more than a slap on the wrist. And even when they did, the party would be reluctant to talk about it, because, well, it was not party culture to speak ill of its own.
The ANC on the other hand, will remain unforgiven for not outing the bad among its ranks, until it is too late or forced to by other forces.
The DA is going to force the ANC’s hand in changing its ways. It does not matter how much Didiza and the party will protest that Steenhuisen is claiming an easy victory, one he has nothing to do with. What matters is that the reported misdeeds at OBP were made public by Steenhuisen. Records will show that three months into office, he “exposed” wrongdoing at OBP. There is no space for detail in headlines and sound bites.
The practice of public relations is a tactic of reputation management. It is used to influence perceptions audiences hold about you. For some reason, curiously, the ANC fears that the more it reveals the bad among its ranks, the more it would build an unfavourable reputation.
Of course, if the party is rotten to the core, then there is something to worry about. But exposing wrongdoing and being seen to be punishing those who fall foul of the law and the rules, is good for one’s reputation. The only challenge is when there are too many bad apples. Even then, dealing with them is good PR.
Hiding its head in the sand, the ANC appears at best unconcerned and, at worst, unbothered. And when the latter happens, your popularity stakes drop, trust levels plummet and, inevitably, this shows in the polls.
The opposite of this, of course, is not lying — exaggerating creating things that do not exist. These are bad, even worse than Steenhuisen stealing the ANC’s glory. Lying, exaggerating and creating phantom successes is lying by commission. What Steenhuisen did is lying by omission. He just “forgot” to tell us it was not his doing. For that, he will gain easier and ready forgiveness.
The ANC, on the other hand, will remain unforgiven for not outing the bad among its ranks, until it is very late or forced by other forces.
The next five years are going to be fun to watch. The DA is not going to play nicely and give the ANC kudos. It will use every opportunity to paint itself holier-than-thou. It will play to the gallery, even for a moment.
The ANC had better understand this. No amount of crybaby tears will save it. The court of public opinion is there for the taking.
• Mabote is executive chair of Decode Communication and a well-known reputation adviser
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