If former ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa is to be believed, there are rumblings of yet another breakaway formation from the party. In a speech last week, Phosa said “long-time loyalists have irrevocably given up hope that the party, which liberated SA, will reach deep within and renew itself”.

One cannot help but be a tad mischievous and ask: Who are these “long-time loyalists” who have finally found their backbone? Are they, like Phosa, among those who in 2007 enthusiastically elected a man facing corruption charges to lead them, who supported him as he dismantled law enforcement agencies and as he handed the state to the Guptas?..