The ANC has lost its moral compass

Isiqhelo si’yoyisa ingqondo is an isiXhosa expression meaning that “familiarity conquers sense”, and captures the current state of the bungling and scandal-prone ANC.

Adding to its litany of miscalculations, the ANC has gone ahead and shot itself in the foot with a delegation led by secretary-general Ace Magashule hitching a lift on a taxpayer-funded SA Air Force jet to Harare. In a further twist to this intriguing episode, it has emerged that the delegation breached level 2 lockdown regulations which bar international travel.

Furthermore, it was not clear whether the team was cleared to travel by the minister of transport as required by the regulations.

The explanation by the minister of defence, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, that she travelled to Zimbabwe for a scheduled discussion with her Zimbabwe counterpart and that she gave the ANC delegation a lift, does not wash. President Cyril Ramaphosa has demanded a report from the minister to clarify the mystery.

The latest faux pas by the ANC is a clear indication that the party is not acting out of arrogance but that it has clearly lost its moral compass. The ANC can no longer distinguish between right and wrong. It can no longer separate party and state and treats the SA state as its possession.

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The fact that the trip was discussed at an ANC senior officials meeting where the president was present, shows that he is not in charge. It also casts doubt on the ANC’s stated commitment to root out malfeasance that has entangled the organisation.

The ANC seemingly suffers from a sense of entitlement.The latest abuse of power by the ruling party is a continuation of a string of abuses since the ANC came to power in 1994. Through the tenures of successive ANC presidents, the party has always found itself embroiled in one form of scandal, with Arms Deal scandal marking the ANC’s initiation into grand state corruption.

There was also the HIV/AIDS denial scandal which was spearheaded by President Thabo Mbeki. The Zuma era was marked by scandal after scandal with excesses including the Nkandla debacle and state capture. It was initially believed that Zuma was the one who was prone to scandal. However, time has proven that it is the ANC itself that is infected with the corruption virus.

The affinity for scandal within the ANC has reached schizophrenic levels which make the need for a quick and decisive remedy an imperative. This schizophrenia is borne out by the fact that malfeasance is worn as a badge of honour in ANC circles. The more corrupt you are, the brighter the prospects of upward mobility within the party.

Malfeasance is not punished within the ANC, it is rewarded. Examples of such aberrations include the Travelgate culprits who were rewarded following their criminal convictions for defrauding parliament. Some of these culprits include Bathabile Dlamini, who became a cabinet minister subsequent to her conviction.

There were others who came out of the controversy with merely a slap on the wrist. Zuma himself ascended the highest office in the land with a corruption scandal hanging over his head.

Recently, two ANC Limpopo officials were reinstated to their positions with their involvement in the collapse of the VBS bank not yet clarified. The former mayor of eThekwini municipality, Zandile Gumede, was promoted to an MPL at the KZN legislature after being charged with fraud and corruption. The ANC was forced to rescind its decision following a public uproar.

The ANC is sick and no longer fit morally or psychologically to govern SA. What it needs is time-out to repair its psychological make-up and find its lost moral compass. South Africans have suffered enough under the yoke of ANC corruption and deserve a break to experience a better life that the ANC promised and dismally failed to bring to fruition.

The ANC is beyond redemption, and the tragedy is that its capacity to appreciate the error of its ways has been severely diminished. Simply put, the ANC is politically insane.