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The ANC is like an ocean. Sunday thoughts

The ANC is like an ocean. Its ecosystem includes all sorts of political creatures. The ANC generates tsunamis like it generates the waves surfers would wish for. It contains sharks, dolphins, whales, snakes, salmon, turtles, sardines, and several other exotic and dangerous marine species in an ocean. 

It can wash ashore whatever it no longer needs, since it is inviting to everything it needs. If you are deep within it and find persons unworthy of the ANC, rest assured that the ocean is seeking the best method and, most importantly, the shoreline to discard them. Unless you are inside and observe the workings of this non-biotic organism with characteristics and members like the ANC, you will not see this magic. 

 

The ANC has been around multiple times before, and it is nearing its 114th year. It has survived the toughest political trials, during which sacrificing one’s life for its cause was sometimes seen as a noble act. Besides fighting for freedom as the main reason for joining the ANC, it served as a school of politics based on hands-on learning; from understanding why you are a member to knowing why, if necessary, you must be willing to die for the cause.

 

The ANC is undergoing an ecdysis and a metamorphosis simultaneously. True ANC members recognise and understand its vulnerabilities during this sensitive phase. Some members are shedding old skins and layers that the new ANC no longer needs. The skins necessary to navigate the anti-apartheid struggle are difficult to shed when remnants of the past linger in various forms.


Similarly, the skins that accompany the sins of incumbency are stubborn to shed. Yet the ANC has, since adopting the 1996 South African Constitution, relied on liberation promises, but has now entered a cocoon stage. For both the unwanted skins to be shed—limiting cuticles to fall off—and for the cocoon to burst open, revealing an ANC encumbered to South Africans, it requires a leadership with a different wiring.


There will be waiting thorns ready to scratch the new skin as it unfolds. These thorns differ in size, and what we are experiencing as a society—people rushing to be first to scratch the ANC’s new skin and renewed self—will become common. Most of these thorns are loud and small. History beyond them will determine the importance of the scratches they leave, if any. 

 

Scratches and marks that the ANC has earned in the ocean, forming its legacy, are diverse, yet each is meaningful for what it represents. That it remains alive and continues to fight for a chance at renewal is enough reason for its supporters to keep their efforts going. 

 

Undergoing renewal with a history of impeccable leadership, such as the ANC's, is inevitably a challenge filled with doubt. The key difference will always lie in the ANC's leadership at all levels and every aspect. It is how it also renews, including flushing out those who lead it, that it stands a chance to reclaim its mantle as the leader of society.

 

So the current slump is a moment in history; it will teach, leave its lessons, and pass on.

 

Kanimambo.

 

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