Other than Jacob Zuma’s walkout from the Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture, the most dramatic event that unfolded last week was the suspense caused by the threat of blackout made by protesting SABC employees.
That the SABC has always been the site of chaos we all know, but things seemed to have reached a climax this time round. The most interesting player in this whole saga is the ANC, which now opportunistically positions itself behind the workers who are fighting retrenchments.
An ignoramus from another planet would think that the ANC had nothing to do with the chaos at the SABC. But those of us who have been living in SA for the past 26 years know too well that it is the same ANC that has caused the mess.
It is the ANC that has been deploying incompetents to run the SABC board and management. It is the ANC that appointed clowns like Hlaudi Motsoeneng to run down the SABC. And it is the ANC in parliament that determines the SABC’s budget.
So, South Africans must not allow themselves to be dribbled while they watch. The truth is simple: the SABC was collapsed by the ANC.
What is now beyond doubt is that, as a governing party, the ANC’s management of any company results in disaster. Look at SAA. Look at Prasa. Look at Denel. And more seriously: look at Eskom.
There is something, though, that the ANC does well: propaganda. Whenever elections come, the party somehow makes it seem as if there are two ANCs – an outgoing one, which is associated with all manner of problems; and an incoming one, which supposedly represents a new dawn.
At some point we were told that Thabo Mbeki was the problem, and that Jacob Zuma would solve our problems. We were later told that Zuma himself had become a problem, and that Cyril Ramaphosa held the magic wand.
What doesn’t change is the further deterioration of state institutions. If you put the propaganda aside, the naked truth that remains is that things keep getting worse.
Here is the question: did state-owned companies become better under Zuma, after Mbeki, the problem, was removed? Or are they better under Ramaphosa, now that Zuma, the proud thief, is out?
The personalisation of problems is a ploy by ANC propagandists to hoodwink South Africans into believing that there is an individual who messes up public institutions while the ANC stands aside helplessly.
It is now made to appear as though the SABC’s problems have been caused by the current CEO who doesn’t care about the lives of the workers he is bent on retrenching. But we all know that it is the ANC that has brought us where we are.
We must always remember that SA doesn’t have a presidential system. We don’t vote for an individual; we vote for a party.
When there are governance problems in public institutions, we must turn the spotlight of accountability to the governing party as a whole, not to the individual at the helm.
If we were to look at SA's political problems from a party perspective, as we indeed should, it would become clearer that our country’s politico-economic problems have resulted from mismanagement by the whole ANC.
Since 1994, the ANC has been promising to grow the economy and create jobs. The real question is where are the jobs promised by the ANC, not by Zuma or Ramaphosa.
A party perspective would make it clear that, as a leader of a corrupt and incompetent party, Ramaphosa will never be able to turn things around in ailing state institutions.
The sad truth is that SA has now reached a dead end. The state has collapsed to the extent that it is now impossible for the ANC to arrest the decline.
As for us ordinary South Africans, we must prepare ourselves for daily protests by workers in state-owned companies and government departments facing unavoidable retrenchments.
Yes, the end is in full swing.
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