OPINION
THE TIME OF MONSTERS
Crystal Orderson is deputy editor at South African media outlet eNCA; Patrick Smith is editor-in-chief of The Africa Report
Supporters of President Cyril Ramaphosa are lauding the vanquishing of his main opponent within the governing African National Congress (ANC) – former secretary general Ace Magashule. No doubt Ramaphosa has scored a political victory in the councils of the ANC by squeezing out Magashule on corruption charges. It seems the legal battles – which pit Magashule (with the help of an expensive, opposition-aligned lawyer) against his own party – are set to stretch out much longer. This will wash the ANC’s dirty linen in public. It will be up to the courts to decide on what should be an internal party matter. Ramaphosa may have allowed himself a celebratory drink and an extra-long bike ride. But the strategic side of his character will be telling him that it’s way too soon to declare
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‘mission accomplished’. It may just be the end of the beginning. Ace Magashule reminded his supporters at a rally for his patron, ex-president Jacob Zuma, in Pietermaritzburg: “I will never leave the ANC comrades, I will die in the ANC.” If you’re looking for points of light, there are plenty. South Africa is still the beloved country its people liberated in 1994 after hundreds of years of struggle. It has the same incredible array of people and talent; the same abundance of natural resources. But, in what many South Africans call the wasted years, its institutions have taken a hammering, with widespread looting of the resources meant to uplift the very people who put the ANC in power. We have reversed the progress we were making in overturning structural inequalities and racism. We all know it needs radical change, but those within the party can’t agree how. Some of us have just given up, voting to the left or the right of the ANC, or, worst of all, not voting at all. That is a scary thought because so many people have died for this right.
THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 116 / JULY-AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2021
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
CRYSTAL ORDERSON and PATRICK SMITH
Now we have another impossibility on our hands. Can the ANC rebuild itself while it holds power at the centre and in the provinces? Political scientists say: ‘No chance’. It is doomed to get more and more dysfunctional until it implodes and loses power. Before the pandemic, that analysis looked spot-on. Now President Ramaphosa’s gradualism is bearing fruit. His strategy is to change the ANC from the top down and also transform the state machine by appointing honest and capable officials to key agencies such as the National Prosecuting Authority. Progress is much slower in other institutions such as the security agencies and the police. Some of it is working. Look at the Zondo Commission, set up in 2018 to investigate the beneficiaries of state capture. Slowly but surely, some of those local and international companies such as the US’s McKinsey have admitted to wrongdoing and are returning their ill-gotten gains. An Interpol Red Notice has been issued for the Gupta family. Assets worth millions have been seized. There is a long list of state officials and ANC party hacks facing criminal charges. More complicated is the other side of the ANC’s reform coin: trying to rebuild the party from the grassroots up. This will be tested at the next round of local elections due this year. The ANC may prove more resilient than many predict. Its main rivals, the Democratic Alliance and the Economic Freedom Fighters, are haemorrhaging support at the ballot box. At byelections in May, the ANC trounced its rivals, despite the economic and public health problems. In an electoral system based on proportional representation, the vetting of candidates is often done at the party headquarters, where officials decide who makes it on to the party’s list of candidates. In some areas, the local ANC branch is so unpopular that the party-approved candidate would stand
