NEWS & ANALYSIS

The battle for the belly of ANC

Sefu Sekgala says the SACP is winning the battle for control of the ruling party

It's obvious to everyone in South Africa that the face of ANC is ugly, undesirable and unattractive.

You have in the forefront JZ with a bunch of withdrawn charges against him, serious charges that can't be desirable. Then you have a Youth League President with verbal diarrhoea. As if that is not enough you have an influential COSATU SG who can't resist his organizational credit card. And then you have the engine of the Alliance Mr. Nzimande who is allegedly well associated with a black bag full of money.

This face of ANC is scary. It is currently very influential, it is in control, and to put it nicely, is in the driving seat. The driving force for this group of ANC leadership is clearly not the advancement of the society, but the accumulation of resources. Their goal is to amass as much resources as possible so that when they leave office they are set for life.

You don't have to go far, just look at how Nathi spends government money; ministers buy cars beyond the imagination of some capitalists; and, Siphiwe Nyanda drives a better car than Warren Buffett.

The worrying thing is there is no action taken against these ministers, there is no serious reprimands. The famous line is "They have done nothing wrong as per the ministerial handbook".

The lack of action sends a clear message to these ministers that: You can take all you want, don't worry about the public, opposition parties and the media. They will make noise until their faces turn blue, but there is nothing they can do. We are in government and we are in charge. Take what you can and do so quickly.

In the meanwhile, we will slowly punish the Mbeki-era mayors and councillors and pretend to be combating corruption, the public can easily be fooled.

This strategy of course will work temporarily for ANC. Especially since the SACP plan to take over ANC is gaining ground fast. As the SACP makes its move, the belly of ANC boils and remains vulnerable.

The FACE of ANC is ugly, uneducated and incompetent. The belly of ANC however, is beautiful, educated and competent. The face of the ANC is defined by President Zuma, who leads by trial and error, over consults and lacks the ability to analyze issues in both the local and global context. He lacks the ability to match the micro and macro challenges our country is facing. He sees things only in one dimension. He has no ability even to understand what a multi dimensional view means. He sees the World through local eyes.

That's why he can easily let Butana Khompela chase the President of IAAF away. He does not see the importance of working with IAAF to ensure that South African athletes compete internationally.

The second definition of the face of ANC is by Julius Malema. Malema only sees the world through popularity. But, who can blame him? Leadership in the ANC is a popularity contest. When he plans to make a statement, he does not ask the question: how can what I say make a difference in the lives of ordinary South Africans? The question he does ask is what can I say to capture the media for the whole week? Even if it means Malema goes naked, that he may do one day just to be in the media spotlight.

The current face of ANC lacks intellect and is driven and sustained by populism. This includes statements like shoot to kill, Nationalization of Mines, Calling white people racist, recalling public servants publicly.

This ugly face of ANC scares the Belly of ANC to death. This Ugly face, does not do things on principle, but does things based on emotions: Emotions of Fear, Emotions of Greed. It is generally extremely confused wondering how did the intellectual (Thabo Mbeki) do his job with such ease.

Recalling mayors and councillors based on the fact that people are angry and vandalizing property is a call for disaster, it's the foundation of anarchy. There is no principle there. It tells the rest of us that ANC government is blind and we need to be unruly and ungovernable to show it that things are not going well. Why does it have to take people to vandalize things before the ANC can take action? Does it not have a plan to deal with all corrupt and underperforming municipalities and government departments? If they do have a plan, why get rushed to recall so hastily.

The new ugly face of ANC is not afraid to do ugly things because it's ugly itself. Look at the appointment of Moe and Njenje, the release of Schabir and many more ugly things than I care to mention.

The SACP has seen that this ugly faced ANC lacks intellect and it is using its intellect to take over ANC. The Eastern Cape is a good example. Some of this unruly unrest is said to be the brainchild of the SACP. At the very top, you have SACP chiefs well placed in the ANC and Government. Gwede and Blade are the Top leaders of SACP and are now wearing two caps: one has ANC and SACP and another has SACP and Government.

Do you think any of them will give up SACP positions? No they won't. The reality is that the SACP's days are numbered. If the SACP can truly capture ANC, then what's the use of having SACP? If you can have the NWC of ANC dominated by the SACP and COSATU what do you need SACP for? What is a communist in this day in age if a secretary of communists can take over a million rands of ordinary people's money for a mere car?

The call for Zuma's second term is all hot air. Vavi is not honest in calling for this. The main plan is for SACP and COSATU to occupy the Top six of the ANC. Vavi will be joining that top six, you can be sure that Nzimande will be as well. Don't be fooled by people merely testing waters.

These people don't necessarily like Zuma, however they see him as an opportunity to achieve their long held dreams, capturing ANC. This scares the belly of ANC. In the belly of ANC you have the likes of Trevor Manuel, Joel Netshitenzhe, Winnie Mandela, Nelson Mandela, Cyrill Ramaphosa, Tokyo Sexwale, Mathews Phosa and many more.

These leaders are sensing that ANC is going under. Some of them like Tokyo and Mathews will try to lead ANC. They are with the Zuma faction because of their mere hatred for Thabo Mbeki, but they find themselves in a dilemma.

The smart people like Nkosasana Dlamini-Zuma, Kader Asmal, Tito Mboweni and many others are caught at a crossroad. They can clearly see that the sheep are going in a completely wrong direction. This are merely the top part of the belly of ANC. This belly has reflections in the NEC, Provinces, regions and branches. The belly is boiling with massive confusion. This belly of ANC has no voice, at times it has to say or do things to appease the UGLY face of ANC.

You can clearly tell by the type of car that Trevor bought, it is not out of his own will. How such a committed servant of the people can buy such an expensive car in a recession? He had to do it to try and get accepted by the face of ANC which is characterized by shameless looters. Tokyo and Mathews have also been saying and doing stupid things to fit in with the UGLY lot.

What next for this confused beautiful, intelligent and competent belly of ANC? Although I'm not fazed by the resignation of Joel, I really believe that Joel will probably be re-deployed somewhere else. This belly still likes and believe that ANC can be turned around from being a populist organization to being a principled and value based organization whose driving values is to serve the people rather that the current self enriching Face of it.

The biggest stumbling block for this group is that it lacks a voice. Even when they voice their views those vies are scattered and distant, therefore they are easily squashed. Remember UGLY have the POWER, RESOURCES and AUTHORITY.

This then presents a very powerful opportunity for an opposition party to not only think of a powerful and viable coalition opposition, but to also lobby the belly of ANC very strongly and plan for a bigger breakaway from the ANC that will join that coalition. This belly will try to change ANC from within and they are going to fail. They are going to fail because SACP will succeed in capturing the ANC. This is because the SACP has the brains and also has the backing of COSATU. Whether you like it not, even the ANCYL‘s actions are beneficial to the SACP's cause.

In planning for a powerful and vibrant opposition party that will preferably be driven by COPE, this part of ANC cannot be ignored, it has to be lobbied strongly. Maybe we need to cut a piece towards the local elections and another piece towards the national and provincial elections.

We just need to accept that SACP is winning the ANC battle and it will be clear by the ANC 2012 conference. There is no other choice but ANC (aka SACP) must be defeated in the 2014 national and provincial elections. Otherwise the entire gains accumulated since 1994, will be forever lost. In any case the sate will be bleeding badly by 2014.

Sefu Sekgala is Cope youth movement Tshwane regional treasurer and regional Chairperson of Cope business and professionals, he writes here in his personal capacity.

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter