It is regrettable that ANC leadership is fixated with party internal issues instead of providing leadership to the country in need in trying times such as these. What with the nation fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.
The ANC's national executive committee was locked in a heated meeting for over three days which was meant to discuss whether its members facing criminal charges should step aside from office as per a conference resolution. Other issues discussed included recommendations by the party's integrity commission and other broader challenges facing our society, among others.
Secretary-general Ace Magashule is facing corruption charges. So the gathering was supposed to decide whether party members and leaders like him charged in court should step down from positions pending the outcome of cases. According to reports, the meeting became tense over the issue, and reached an impasse on Sunday night, which saw NEC members continue discussions yesterday.
It would have been great if the discussions were getting heated over matters of national interest affecting the general public, as that would show passion for the responsibility given to them by the electorate. Sadly, the ANC had its hands full with its internal struggles as the public waits for solutions on how to get out of challenges the country is facing.
The first issue is that Covid-19 vaccine rollout is behind schedule, with only 231,605 healthcare workers who have been inoculated so far. Early this year, government unveiled plans to inoculate 40-million people by the end of the year, saying 67% of the population would need to be immunised to ensure herd immunity. By now we should have wrapped up phase one of the rollout but we are far behind.
University students took to the streets recently against financial exclusion at institutions of higher learning. It came out that at Wits University alone historical debt of 8,000 students amounted to more than R1bn.
The country is also scheduled to hold local government elections this year. The guidelines of how the polls would be conducted during the pandemic have not been released yet.
However, the ANC leadership, in its wisdom, spent the weekend obsessing over party matters. They should have used the days to come up with solutions for the myriad problems facing the nation.
Their areas of focus show lack of leadership. The country is in a crisis that should be dominating discussions of a party mandated to run government.
Get your act together and lead.
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