The schizoid ANC and the two paths it could take: The African National Congress must decide on its ethical trajectory

Published in the Sunday Times on 17 March 2024

In the middle of an impressive record of decisiveness in implementing what the governing ANC called renewal through weeding out characters responsible for putting its integrity and standing into disrepute, two personalities of the ANC emerge. The pursuit of integrity as a strategic and tactical terrain upon which its reputation as a leader of society would be rescued from the battering it suffered because of revelations at several judicial commissions of inquiry and reports of chapter nine institutions is a personality which inspired hope in its renewal program. On the other hand, the March 2024 NEC decision to submit a list of parliamentary nominees inclusive of persons its self-created member integrity management system recommended should step aside and those cited by several inquiry reports as human nodes whose conduct is inconsistent with corruption and state capture free post-fifth administration a Ramaphosa presidency committed to. 

 

Arguably, the nexus of political life and a substrate of socio-political mores with which a new social order could be anchored, choosing an anti-corruption path became a flagship reputation-earning act by the ANC. In a world prioritising anti-corruption in the public sector, these personalities create a schizophrenic duality that will take generations to correct unless the eminent voter choice opportunity is decisive about the national leadership it wants. The character slide from the Nelson Mandela leadership cohort to the on-record compromised incumbents triggers a set of consequential questions on the ethical trajectory the governing party is taking or should be taking. Notwithstanding the political or otherwise arguments to justify the NEC decision, the act cannot airbrush a truism that the right reasons to continue wrongdoing do not yield correctness but normalise wrongdoing. 

 

South Africa is in a social values leadership crisis. The habits of those in leadership, which become society's values, are at variance with what the Constitution expects of the type of leadership it assumed when it vested the Republic's legislative, executive, and judicial authorities. Ramaphosa's admission that 'the ANC is accused number one in the dock' on corruption matters might be confirmed by the dwindling political will to bite the proverbial bullet in the interest of RSA. Concerning ethical leadership, the ANC, as an institution of leadership, has reached a point of no return. It is clear that in this election, it is asking for a political mandate to be different. A different self which it might not be committed to living. It is apparent that some people who might have landed it where it has repeatedly said it does not want itself, hence renewal, will be part of those who will bring the difference- an ethical conundrum of epic proportions."

In his exit or handover speech to President Thabo Mbeki at the ANC conference in Mafikeng, President Mandela decried the encroaching corruption conduct and characterised it as the risk to the moral high ground the ANC has amassed as its distinct social and political capital. These capital forms have recently been used to liquidate the moral basis of the Israeli occupation of Palestine and call the war in Gaza a genocide. Since the Mandela warning, the ANC has accelerated itself as a political party contesting for political power and an organisation progressively prioritising the political or otherwise interests of the political elite and economic establishment. The foregrounding of elite interests instead of delivering on the liberation promise generated breeds of conduct only a judicial commission of inquiry could handle. 

Unless there is evidence to the contrary, what we are now experiencing is an anti-corruption Ramaphosa sixth administration, which is in a conundrum of choosing between acquiescing to the demands for ethical leadership by society and the historical moment or risk losing the support of inside-the-ANC personalities that have kept his fragile political life afloat since the historic marginal win of 2017 in NASREC. The political party funding flows towards parties that 'should step in and weaken' the ANC's majority status, which is a moneyed vote of no confidence and a desperate thirst for an alternative to the settling unethical architecture is real. President Ramaphosa's handling of the in-ANC campaign funding, the CR17 files, and the PhalaPhala foreign currency matter has compromised his person to lead any anti-corruption drive. The reversal of his reported resignation from office in 2022 put him on a path where his political survival became more important than the path he had chosen for South Africa. 

The result of a compromised Ramaphosa-led anti-corruption drive is leadership created by buying branches influence that in-governing party politics. With a potential of about four thousand ward-based branches, fifty-two regional structures, nine provincial executive committees, and an eighty-member NEC, purchasing the soul of the ANC is a less than one-billion-dollar affair. The sealed CR17 files confirm it is on sale and that merchandising it is its reputational risk, albeit rewarding. The MK Party dynamic and emerging confidence within the judiciary to blow the whistle of perceived judicial overreach into politics, especially the recent impeachments and the questionable arrest for contempt of a civil court, are all tangential to the inconsistencies in how we define malfeasance, corruption, state capture, and state captures. 

The opposition horizon is not inspiring hope. The MK Party-EFF ideological complex might not be able to be a new creature of politics. It will be a version of ANCness and, thus, the same species with different outer cuticles. The rest of the anything but the ANC opposition complex is not free of malfeasance where they govern. The political leadership crisis is more profound than we appreciate. 

The question is, what are the options for South Africa? Firstly, the country needs fresh leadership and not necessarily a new governing party. This might be through voter reaction to the NEC or in-ANC decision after the elections, including if it would have gotten the 50% threshold to call a National General Council to deal with corruption decisively. Secondly, a government of national unity option should be considered if a coalition emerges out of the elections. Coalition partners should constitute a judicial panel to facilitate the decisive implementation of the Zondo and other commission reports. This will take the country into a post-state capture mindset. Thirdly, an economic transformation CODESA will be convened to craft a social compact undergirded by financial commitments, including the emotive National Grievance on land restitution. Fourthly, a dispensation that recognises the regional rigidities of South Africa should be considered, which might include introducing firm federal-state features into the Constitution. Political parties are already in that mode; the ANC is, by the way, leading the federating South African politics charge. CUT!!!