Who will the ANC have to blame when beset with the inevitable day of reckoning come 2029? That is, its support dips even further, and the mighty Khongolose is the former heavyweight – his best years behind him – and forced to lick his wounds from outside the ring of glory as he agonises over what could have been as early as 2034.
For this, the number crunchers and surveys aren’t necessary to tell us that this is the thin ice on which the party is, rather obliviously, skating. Last year, it seemed that the pollsters either had it seriously in for the party or were smoking something. The ANC getting less than fifty percent of the vote? Ludicrous; tell us another one! Then the election results started trickling through, and what we saw on the television had many taking a double take. So, now here we are.
Those who were able to see the writing on the wall had long advised the cadres to get their house in order but for the most part, it has been business as usual for the men of Luthuli House as they arrange yet another dumbfounding commission of inquiry as well as what has been reduced to a pathetic National Dialogue because, sadly, they’re clearly fresh out of new ideas and lack the wherewithal to address the immediate issues that SA is grappling with. And, just a glance at this horrendous fumbling of the ball, let’s you know not to hold your breath of the silver lining materialising any time soon.
So, in the event of an inability to address what is, in my humble estimate, the three pressing issues of the time: unemployment, migration and decisively acting on those individuals fingered for corruption, what the party presents to us instead, is a distraction. Those always draw the news cameras and by default, take the focus off of the barbarism that’s brewing out there in the taxi industry, for example.
Inadvertently, though, they are also a public exercise of the party shooting itself in the foot, unprovoked, and further exposes the pervasive ineptitude if you consider, for instance, that the Madlanga Judicial Commission of Inquiry is unable to conduct its work due to government’s inability to provide necessary infrastructure.
You’ll recall that this was the commission announced in the wake of KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s scathing allegations of political interference, criminality and corruption in the Criminal Justice System. The sheer magnitude of public outrage that Mkhwanazi stirred meant that president Cyril Ramaphosa simply had to act. Or, at least seem like he was. However, it might well be a little too late in the day for the man who doesn’t quite command full party support and who – in a bid to save his own skin – is forced to mollycoddle those allies that put him there, and who had his back at a time when his own smallanyana skeletons were tumbling out of the furniture at Phala-Phala.
Given the recent announcement that Madlanga’s proceedings would not be getting underway on the initial commencement date of 1 September, many are questioning whether there exists any genuine political will to get to the bottom of things. ‘It is especially concerning,’ said the chairperson of the parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development, Xola Nqola, ‘that the delay seems to be due to public servants not executing their responsibilities. This commission is of utmost importance to restore credibility for the country.’ Credibility? Hardly a word that springs to mind when you think of our leadership. ‘Public servants not executing their responsibilities,’ however, is.
A billion Rand was blown on the Zondo commission, but not a single high profile individual has faced the music. Madlanga’s upcoming probe is currently billed at R147.9 million, but in light of our national habits, it might as well be twice, three times, who knows how much more than that? When pressed, and the witnesses start singing at these public probes, those moments always get everybody excited until the hype blows over and the final reports are left to gather dust on the president’s desk. When Angelo Agrizzi said the embattled Bosasa had often paid a monthly retainer as well as supplied former Cabinet minister Nomvula Mokonyane with beer, whisky and meat, the ordinary SAffer thought her fate was sealed. But in her current duties as Deputy Secretary-General of the ANC, she seems to be doing well enough, and so the joke’s on the fools who laughed and called for justice.
Although they may well serve as a delaying tactic, what these commissions cannot do is to stave off the multiplying national troubles, nowadays writ so large in the squalor that is once-clean inner city streets and the hopeless service encountered at virtually every public service point to such an extent that fringe groups like the xenophobic Operation Dudula are garnering public support from otherwise sound-minded South Africans as they take to forcibly turning away foreign nationals from public health care facilities or vandalising their stalls and shops.
The visuals are undignified to watch and the commentary is split between the gatvol and those who’ve simply accepted that it’s still a long way up the creek without a paddle for beloved South Africa. Faith in government or law enforcement are at an all-time low and seemingly communities are rising up to save themselves in manners that completely flout and break the law, inching us ever more precariously towards the parochialism of a banana republic.
The online videos suggest that the vigilante action has the cops out of their depth. Undocumented foreign nationals are flocking in by the hour; illicit drugs and alcohol are a windfall for faceless syndicates, and ordinary people are being pulled out of private vehicles and forced into taxis by merciless marshalls whose idea of the law is that it was written by their bosses.
The war between taxis and e-hailing services has turned bloody and if you’ve been in the country long enough, you’d know that these can spill over very quickly with dire consequences for all, including innocent commuters. So, as the high language emanates out of the National Dialogue these are the things that have given this writer a great deal to worry about. The ANC Youth League has tried to walk back its labeling of the Dialogue as a ‘tea party.’
Yet, given how the most illustrious of society leaders and established foundations have turned their backs on it, that assessment would not be too far off. Add to this the tab, estimated at R450 million and you want to ask if these guys are okay. Like really? The entire thing has been severely criticized, yet the caring government has ignored all counsel and went ahead anyway. Can they, therefore, be trusted to act on the issues raised in the sessions? Does hearing matter in the face of inaction? But most importantly; will they have anyone to blame but themselves when they come to listen (read: ask for your vote) in four years’ time and find that ordinary people have simply long grown tired of the talking? It doesn’t offer any protection from the xenophobes baying for the blood of anyone who sounds ‘funny’, nor from the taxi marshalls around the corner, certainly not from the tenderpreneurs who are likely to be the biggest beneficiaries of this Dialogue.