For the ANC, 2025 is the year of the mosquito and the ant. These are tiny animals, but they can cause massive irritation and damage or bring about death itself.
The ANC’s mosquito is the indefatigable former president of the party, Jacob Zuma, the master of whining and all things victimhood, who has started 2025 as he aims to proceed through it: by continuing to harass, intimidate, gaslight and annoy the ANC as much as possible. He has extended his Nuremberg strategy of lawfare — in which he has attempted to wear down the government’s corruption case against him by bringing numerous lengthy and time-wasting procedural and substantive challenges — to his expulsion from the ANC.
On January 8, the ANC’s birthday, Zuma’s attorneys wrote to the ANC’s bigwigs that his expulsion flouted party procedures and was therefore “unlawful”. Zuma is, of course, president of the MK Party, an organisation fundamentally opposed to the ANC and its policies, and which he led to an impressive 15% haul of votes in the May 2024 elections. Zuma has, in the past six months, suspended, fired, expelled and banished tens of people from his MK Party without regard for due process.
Zuma is stalking the ANC like a spurned lover who just won’t get the message that it’s over. He is relentless
Yet, in his lawyer’s letter to the ANC, he raises concerns about steps and processes taken by the ANC’s national disciplinary structures in deciding to ultimately kick him out. He goes on to warn the ANC that he will launch legal action if it does not reinstate him by the end of this month.
You have to marvel at the man’s chutzpah. It makes one feel sorry for the ANC, a party that has made it impossible for anyone to feel sympathy for it. Zuma is stalking the ANC like a spurned lover who just won’t get the message that it’s over. He is relentless.
He realises that without the ANC, without needling it at every point, without stealing its colours and mission, he is nothing. Assisted by the supporters he still has inside the ANC’s top echelons, he will be the party’s biggest and most irritating mosquito this year.
The real danger to the ANC this year, however, is the ants in its pants: the internal opposition to the government of national unity from its provincial structures, some of its leaders, and some of its allies. Whatever the ANC in Gauteng may say, it is clear as daylight that it has no love for the GNU as it is currently configured and would be very happy to see a union between the ANC and some other party, most likely Julius Malema's EFF.
Though the trade union federation Cosatu is behind the GNU, its affiliates are beginning to take some ideological direction from the South African Communist Party — which has declared it will fight the ANC in local elections in 2026 — and are beginning to oppose the coalition government. Meanwhile, the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal is infiltrated by MK Party members and has a problem with its fealty to Ramaphosa and the central ANC. At the same time, it is at loggerheads with provincial structures of some Cosatu affiliates. For example, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu) is suing the ANC and its KwaZulu-Natal secretary Bheki Mtolo for R2m for defamation.
Internal cohesion and party discipline are lacking in the ANC. A character such as Tony Yengeni, who is actively aiding and abetting an opponent of his own party, should have been disciplined ages ago. In the current ANC, he operates freely. If he were in the MK Party, where Zuma has assigned to himself the power to hire and fire without any due process, Yengeni would be out in the streets.
Why do the ANC’s problems matter? Opportunity waits for the ANC, and for us as a country, if we can positively exploit the goodwill that has come with the formation of the GNU. If we show stability, focus, and seriousness we can attract investment, create jobs and grow the economy. With its coalition with the DA and others holding up, the ANC can do what it has failed to do in the past 17 years: create jobs, attract domestic and foreign direct investment, and grow the economy.
The political arrangements and economic reforms pushed through by the government-business partnership over the past few years present a massive opportunity. But, as usual, don’t underestimate the ANC’s ability to mess it up. The lack of cohesion and the failure to bring unanimity within the party on the way forward — at least for the next five years — present a risk to this very positive outlook.
If there is anything that the ANC must do this year, it is to swat the mosquito and put its ants away in a container while it focuses ruthlessly on the quick and focused implementation of policy.
For opinion and analysis consideration, email Opinions@timeslive.co.za
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