When hegemony finally counts for nothing
The high cost of busking in the arrogance of being the broad church, the biggest and oldest and political party in Africa, is the ultimate creation of an opposition built from within your own organization.
The man who proclaimed that the ANC will rule until the return of Jesus Christ, is seemingly seeing his imminent return and decided to arrest him, because the ANC has no plan to keep him in prison.
The Umkhonto we Sizwe Party was not formed yesterday as many are made to believe. It was formed at least more than four years ago. In fact, one can even venture into thinking it might have much to do with the Gupta era.
The so-called MK Military Veterans Association that camped in Inkandla, at Jacob Zuma’s residence, cannot be said to be innocent, by any stretch of the imagination.
As this was happening, Jacob Zuma was not just an ordinary member of the ANC, but in fact it’s President. As ordinary citizens questioned the motives of those periodic gatherings at Inkandla, the ANC, the organization, simply looked the other way. Those gatherings at Inkandla, could be said to be the culmination what is known as the July unrests that engulfed the country. We are still to hear about the fate of those “known instigators”!
The ANC could not reign Jacob Zuma in because, it regards power and numbers as more important than discipline and keeping the country safe and in order. The KZN Province has always been very important to it because the ANC attached more value to its numbers and therefore, power than anything else. If it meant, not disciplining Zandile Gumede or Mike Mabuyakhulu would assure it of retention of the Province, the ANC would rather not apply the rules because of it’s selfish interest of power, at the high cost to the country’s economy, security and morality.
Disciplining members in the ANC has always been dependent on the influence the accused member has over it’s members, and, by extension, the number of people that individual wields power over it their respective provinces.
There is no doubt that the incarceration of Jacob Zuma was not in the interest of the ANC, although it publicly said it was in the interest of Justice, the very Justice the ANC took an oath of office, to uphold but doesn’t anyway!
The subsequent medical parole was a breath of fresh air for the ANC. However, that was short-lived in that upon the ConCourt judgment, his medical parole was declared unlawful, and he had to return to prison to complete his sentence.
The announcement by Minister Ronald Lamola of the wide scale remission, could reasonably be seen as a grand plan to keep Jacob Zuma out of prison. That too was a stillborn because Jacob Zuma had his plan well worked out already. He had been planning to form his breakaway party for a long time.
The ANC has no moral authority to absolve itself from the formation of the Umkhonto we Sizwe Party. It is a direct manifestation of it’s intransigence and lack of seriousness when it comes to governing this country. The ANC might have thought, as it usually does, that it’s internal squabbles have nothing to do with the country. In doing so, the ANC probably thinks the country is or belongs to it. Unfortunately, we are all, as a country, affected by it’s negligence. Any attempt from the ANC to seek sympathy from the citizens of this country, must be rejected with the contempt it deserves!
I had earlier wrote that the ANC would be forced to negotiate with Jacob Zuma and I also believed Jacob Zuma would be using his power to negotiate with the ANC on his own terms. All that seem to be in the very distant future now. The threat of displacing the ANC is now very real, and the ANC is now panicking.
Again, power does give those who have it a sense of arrogance, and Jacob Zuma is no exception and he is at that point. He most probably, passed the idea of even having any dialog with his former political party, unless it is on his own terms, and his terms only. The ANC, on the other hand, has run out of serious options in the way of forming alliances outside it’s own. On the other hand, the Umkhonto we Sizwe Party seems to be benefitting from the ANC itself, particularly from those who are either facing corruption charges or have been discredited by the ANC disciplinary machinery.
In the era of high levels of gullibility and ignorance, the Umkhonto we Sizwe Party will most likely benefit from the ANC members and supporters, particularly those who failed to catch the tenderpreneur train.
If the ANC had put integrity, morality, uprightness and discipline before anything else, it most probably would be in a better moral position today. Maybe it would not be a big church, but a reasonably solid one with quality members and leaders. It would, by now, in it’s campaigns, not be explaining and justifying why it is taking so long to deal with it’s internal, and by extension, corruption in the public service. It would leave that to its opponents while it gives the electorate reports on what and how it successfully served them and the country. Right now, even the Tintswalo narrative is as cold as ice!
(Pule Monama is a commentator on local and national issues)
