We are experiencing the emergence of decisiveness by a cohort of leadership. The country is thrust into a new era of leaders making decisions. Without reflecting on the quality or otherwise of the decisions, as a society, we must applaud that they are at least taken. We know we have a rare opportunity to at least interrogate a decision taken rather than speculate on a context where no decision has been made about it, except the decision not to decide.
The suspension of the SG will be the epicentre of ructions that will follow to renew or collapse the ANC as we have known it. Various scenarios will emerge beyond the Magashule suspension decision. In my opinion, the following are options left for the leadership that is remaining as the NEC,
1. They can close ranks and defend their decision on the step aside rule, despite being one arrived at through 'consensus' on a Zoom platform.
2. They can review their decision, a condition that may result in the reinstatement of the SG and undermining the ANC as an organisation to be trusted when it comes to its leadership
3. A 'faction' in the NEC that still believes the March 2021 decision was incorrect can resign as members and thus force a special conference to constitute a new NEC.
The time to decisively cleanse the ANC of factionalism arrived quicker than anticipated. To bemoan the procedural aspects of a decision that has been taken will not reverse the message it has communicated to society that there might be a case for the suspension of Ace Magashule and others. Compounding this will be the pending decision by the Constitutional Court to order the arrest of Jacob Zuma as part of a broader legitimating context for the drive to root out those about whom a narrative is established as the index of the anti-corruption drive of the ANC.
Difficult as the decision to suspend the SG has been, its difficulty will not surpass that of having to take its branch leaders along in the branches. Assuming the ANC has on average 30 branches per district, this computes to 8550 persons leading it at the branch level, excluding regional, provincial and national leadership, whose addition might push the figure to 9500. The 9500 to 10000 members of the ANC leadership at all levels will be responsible for communicating this decision to their membership. In taking this decision, the NEC has triggered a conversation amongst members, the outcomes of which can only be funnelled through a policy or special conference.
The President of the ANC should thus ready himself, and if he is as astute as he seems to be, to announce the date of the NGC, thus redirecting whatever energy, anger and/or excitement on the NEC decision into a properly constituted forum of the ANC. The NGC and/or ANC Conference will endorse or otherwise reject the path his NEC has adopted. He cannot bask in approval processes unattached to the source of his Presidency of the ANC and the Country. The time for a Ramaphosa Presidency to be anchored in ANC branches has arrived, otherwise he is in collusion with a stratagem that seeks to undermine the mass-based character of the ANC and replace it with a elite consensus based leadership whose interests have in recent times been found to be intertwined with the maintenance of the economic status quo, including the consolidation of templates of economic dominance.
As one poet in a paraphrased poem wrote to the President,
"O President, My President
Our fearful trip has begun
The democracy cannot weather these cracks
The prize we sought is diminishing
The grave is near, the hymns are sung,
Our people are crying for your leadership
While poverty is wrecking our social fabric
But O anarchy, O anarchy, O anarchy
On the stairs of your high office
Where on the deck my President lies
Falling and focused on political enemies’ beds
O President My President, rise up,
And hear the cries,
Rise up- from your leadership is sought- from under your watch
the State is failing
The procession to bury our hopes is marshaled by anarchists,
The mass graves are filling with youth dreams
From you, we are expecting leadership and
direction
From your party, we have lowered our expectations
Our eager to be the best we are is waning
Hear President, dear leader,
The turmoil beneath your eyes
It is what doomsayers about Africa have predicted
It is the trip we dared not to travel,
On it you are falling and becoming cold
My President does not answer
His might is constrained and diffused
He does not feel the tremors shaking society
Anarchy, corruption and crime is anchoring itself
Our voyage to a better life is truncated
O President, My President
Rise up, there is an army of honest persons waiting for orders
Rise up, there is a swarm of ideas waiting to sting the State
Rise up, there is orchid of solutions waiting to be harvested
Issue orders, issue orders, issue orders
There is a Broad Pool of Ideas waiting
My President can’t be cold and timid
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