If the intelligentsia had seen the turnout at the Northern Cape ANC’s leg of the 114th anniversary celebrations this past Saturday, they might’ve second guessed the veracity of the orbituaries they have taken to penning specifically post-2024. Packed to the rafters – with some putting the figures at around 12 500 – Toto Mayaba Stadium in Colesberg was a far cry from the empty stands and measly slivers of supporters who’d showed up to the party’s national January 8 do in Limpopo this past month.
Mimicking the jovial scenes that animated the Mpumalanga and Gauteng January 8 celebrations and slotting in prime-time aritists like Nkosazana Daughter on the bill, it would’ve been utterly embarassing if things had turned out otherwise.
But in this Karoo dorp they apparently went according to plan, exceeding all expectation and leaving no ammunition for the trigger-happy social media troll. No images of officials addressing a flimsy audience. None of the memes that came in the wake of the disaster in Limpopo. Nothing warranting a cackling emoji and some notable news houses even dispatched a reporter or two. In a nutshell, the entire affair was a resounding – if not unexpected – success despite the unkind polling and pre-election speculation.
From where we were sitting it seemed that the party could not fudge this one and all that was left was to simply take full advantage of the windfall. And they did; deploying the old and trusted instruments of promises, populist rhetoric and freebies. Lots of them. R100 000 for the Colesberg Primary School choir who serenaded the audience with youthful song. A stipend and after-party for the hundreds of volunteers who’d been doing the heavy lifting throughout the week. A t-shirt and a meal for everyone who wanted one.
Between calling for a changed ANC, the Provincial Chairperson of the party and Premier of the province, Dr Zamani Saul also served as a versatile MC. With the local government elections (LGE) around the corner, the theme of the day; The Year of Decisive Action to fix Local Government and Transform the Economy couldn’t have been more fitting. One of Saul’s solutions towards an improved election showing in the upcoming ballot is hinged on the election of ‘correct councillor candidates.’
NEC member Dakota Legoete who delivered the keynote address went on a similar back-to-the-grassroots vein, lamenting corruption and praising the party as never having been a criminal enterprise but the ‘midwife of all formations in the continent against apartheid colonialism.’
He further called on the party to ensure service delivery so as to restore the people’s faith in the organisation. Re-industrializing the province, putting up free WiFi for school kids, speeding up transformation and ensuring an inclusive economy were especially essential to the realisation of a prosperous South Africa he noted. Persistent blackouts, gender-based violence, lack of ownership in black communities and corruption, however, were not.
The there was the announcement that Andrew Louw, former DA and ActionSA leader in the Northern Cape, had joined the ANC. He, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) regional Chairperson of the Pixley kaSeme Region, Daniel Kelem, along with some 100 new members had all joined the ranks of the ANC and were received with loud applause. Closer to home, it was announced that these new recruits also included individuals from the Umsobomvu Residents Association, URA, which had been responsible for much of the ANC’s bloodletting in the previous LGEs.
For the ANC man in Colesberg this move was exceedingly pivotal. Since around the late twenty tens, URA had been a thorn in the flesh to the black vote for the local ANC. They had been the gatvol cabal whose disapproval of the way the ANC-led Council was doing things struck a chord with the disillusioned. Their vigorous anti-corruption, anti-nepotism ticket and offering an immediate alternative to the party rattled what had been generally an undisputed ANC local Council when they bagged a surprising four seats, trumping the more established DA while at it. However, since the last election that momentum seems to have dwindled and this return of some of its members to the ANC indicates that the party has likely dissipated and may well see some of their voters casting their votes with the ANC.
It is therefore unsurprising that their return has been something akin to the return of the prodigal son peppered with much ado and bromance. They were, for the longest time, a genuinely formidable local threat to the ANC’s dominance in these parts.
But if things were going swimmingly under the massive gazebo, one guy wasn’t particularly chuffed. A volunteer, having toiled ‘a f***ing two weeks, broer,’ approaches us, drunk and and angry, to complain that he and several of his colleagues were seen off with a weeping R150 for their nearly two-week-long slog. When they protested the unfairness of the sum, they allege they were told to hold on a minute. Had they forgotten, they were allegedly told, that they’d been fed at least two meals a day during their volunteering and that they were, to be frank, just volunteers. As for their colleagues, they seemed generally happy as they indulged in the libations provided by the organisation at the local community hall the following day.
That said, and notwithstanding the skirmishes and protests that have sometimes affected the Colesberg community, it all seemed like water under the bridge at the ANC’s 114th anniversary. The voices who are known to cause trouble or heckle at similar gatherings were nowhere to be heard. No outbursts, no one to call the municipality a bunch of nepotists and thieves. Instead, they clapped when Colesberg was declared a home of the ANC, sang along to the songs of ANC fortitude and by the time Nkosazana Daughter came on stage, the entire place went into a frenzy. Maybe it was all for the love of the party, or the food, or maybe – just maybe – this means that in Colesberg, the ANC might just rule until Jesus comes back.