Rudzani Floyd Musekwa: Party being given ultimatum

RECENT developments within the ruling – well, we’ll call it “ruling” for now even though I see more “ruining” than ruling party – just because it is still in power, have shown it is not as democratic as it actually pretends to be. The ANC is up against all sorts of dissent within and outside of the party.

This has been proven after the ANC in Gauteng said President Jacob Zuma must resign as he can’t seem to be up to the task of leading this country in the direction that we need as a nation.

The likes of Gwede Mantashe and Baleka Mbete, who are supposed to be the ones safeguarding the hard-foughtfor democracy, are the very same ones who threaten directly or indirectly those members who seem to be against what is going on in that political party that played such a wonderful role in liberating the masses of this country.

The ANC, led by Mantashe, that de facto president of the ANC who doesn’t engage but bullies, has gone out of its way to tell the members that if they have any grievances they need to engage within party structures and not go to the media. But we all know that even if members individually tried doing that, they would still be dealt with because their stance would be known anyway.

So, I am not surprised that the likes of Paul Mashatile and David Makhura have defied that logic anyway.

The ANC is not as democratic as it claims, especially under Zuma, whose administration seems to deal harshly with those who pull in the other direction. The ANC branches and some provinces have become increasingly impatient with Luthuli House for the kid gloves it wears in protecting that man at the top.

The people want to be heard but know that they do not have a viable platform to communicate matters to Mantashe, who in turn will either just ignore them or even punish them.

The members are living in fear because there are the so-called untouchables in the party. The reality is that the ANC is in trouble and it has only two options.

One is that either it recalls Zuma or suffers the consequences of losing ground in the upcoming local government elections. The second option is to allow Zuma himself to resign so that he can also save some face, even though I really doubt if that is even faintly possible.

The reality is that the ANC doesn’t need Zuma at the moment as he has truly damaged the image of that once-upona-time great revolutionary movement.

The ANC currently finds itself with a Gauteng province that is really angry at what is happening in the party’s top structures. The ANC in the province has resolved that the president must resign as he has done more damage that he can clean up.

Gauteng is a very important and strategic province for the ANC as a ruling party and if the ANC loses Gauteng, as it has lost the Western Cape, obviously that will be the end of the ruling party.

This is because it won’t have power in the two most important provinces (economically).

With the party’s very important province already angry and tired of the president so publicly then the others may follow suit.

The current ANC leaders will soon know that the party is bigger than the individual and that indeed one individual who had been made to believe is untouchable is actually very touchable.

The ANC led the president to feel like he was the king of the jungle for a while now and it is time to realise that to rebuild we sometimes have to destroy as we start from scratch.

Zuma has brought nothing but a bleeding pain to the soul of the ANC.

If he is not stopped now then the natural thing will happen, that party will die an unfortunate death after all these years as an exemplary revolutionary party.

Who will be next to say hamba kahle to the president?

Will the Eastern Cape join in and the rest of the provinces?

That, comrades, will be the death of the ANC. It’s either the president leaves or the people shall.

Mark my words.