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THE ANC HAS SHOT ITSELF IN THE FOOT

17/02/2018 22:49:00 The Editor

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Sir,

Although I am not a big fan of the now resigned former President of the Republic of South Africa Jacob Zuma, I am against the timing and the manner he was recalled.

The ANC has shot itself in the foot and its decision will come back to haunt it in the near future and above all, the purpose of the ANC Elective Conference has been lost. Just recently, newly elected ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa stated that Zuma never distanced himself from allegations casting his name in bad light; and now together with the ANC’s Top six, as their ground for his recall, they cited a conflict between two centres of power emerging from the camp of the President of the Republic and that of the ANC in Cyril Ramaphosa.

What a vaguely disingenuous reason to give for a quick take over!
What is the purpose of the elective conference and does its mandate have an immediate bearing on the national mandate and the powers bestowed upon the leading president of the time? I thought it was to prepare the ANC for the next elections, among other things, but certainly not to stick its head at national assembly. If the elective conference creates conflict, why not postpone it until national elections as they are closer and use the recent one to commiserate, review and lobby for the final one?

I did not blame Gedleyhlekisa for crying foul about the mad rush to replace him without valid reasons, not withstanding that we know the allegations against him.
As a Swazi watching from a distance, I had thought the elective conference was a platform strictly for the ANC to elect leaders to deal with the affairs of the ANC whose mandate cannot be seen to be over reaching beyond the mandate and purposes of the elective conference even though it is a platform that informs the national political forum that a potential future President of the Republic has been found.

To me, it seems as if those who win at the elective conference are overwhelmed so much that their triumphalism causes them to bulldoze their way in and by so doing set a bad precedent that depicts internal coup de tats. Anyway, it’s a bad precedent that was conceived and started during Zuma’s infamous takeover when former President Mbeki was suddenly recalled in 2008 after the Mangaung Elective Conference-a move which Zuma has distanced himself from rather belatedly.

It’s only through the rumbling fearless mouth of EFF’s Julius Malema that Zuma’s forefront involvement in the Mbeki recall has been reconfirmed causing him (Zuma) to eat a humble pie, I must add. Nonetheless, all along the ANC failed to warn Zuma of impending danger when he was powerful but waited until he was mortally wounded and then his own, turned against him (wadliwa yingwe yakhe-or tinja takhe). According to the Top six, they never wanted to embarrass Zuma but their actions did more damage than good.
The ANC, in perpetual defiance ignored the call for Zuma’s head for a long time because one would have thought they understood that such was indeed by extension, a call for the ruling party’s head!

But lo and behold, they go sleep with the enemy when you least expect them and by so doing expose their weakness to the opposition, blindsided by a common goal whose essence was to get rid of the president.

All this happened at the expense of their own image and this weakness will be exploited by DA’s ascending stalwart, Mmisi Maimane, who plunged the dagger while congratulating Ramaphosa by stating: “It would be erroneous to say we were facing a Zuma problem but rather an ANC problem.”

The ANC’s big six, while purporting to restore confidence, failed to read the political barometer of their own party thus acted like political imbeciles, if you can ask me. Given the period left in Zuma’s tenure, it was politically expedient for them to hold their breath and see it through and not show their chess cards to the enemy; besides they had been pretending all was well within the camp for so long.

WaSphangasenkunzi