That the decay in the ANC has reached a point of no return, and that we are getting closer to the day the party will no longer be the government of SA, is becoming more obvious.
It seems to be the fate of the prescient never to be believed each time they draw the attention of societies to events that lie in the future. But the ANC’s impending end has manifested itself in too many telltale signs.
Political parties embody the collective character of their members, and they are animated by the aspirations and ideals of the constituencies they represent.
As we all know, the ANC was formed by leaders of the politically excluded black majority in 1912. The ideal was to liberate black people from the yoke of colonialism and racism, to change the status of a black person from subject to citizen.
The second aspect of the grand ideal was to emancipate black people economically, to transform them from being servants of the white man to becoming well-rounded people who can own, manage and profit from the productive processes that propel local and international trade.
It took 82 years for the ANC, working with other democratic forces, to confine colonialism to the dustbin of imperialist politics and topple apartheid.
Aeons after time and recurrent rains will have flattened the ANC’s grave, the fall of apartheid will remain the most enduring monument to the party’s temporal existence. This will constitute the first part of the book that will chronicle the life of the ANC.
If honesty were to guide the hand that will write such an important book, the second part of the book must, perforce, be heartbreaking.
In a nutshell, the second part of the book will be a harrowing tale of monumental failure by a party that aroused great hopes in its early days as a governing party and turned out to be one of the most corrupt and morally bankrupt organisations in the 21st century.
Having stabilised the messy finances of the departed apartheid government, and having succeeded in laying the institutional foundations of a new democratic state, the ANC quickly became a pig that eats its own children. The party turned around and destroyed the very same institutions it had set up.
In the process, the ANC squandered the aspirations and ideals of the very constituency it professed to represent – black people.
When the English held political power in SA, they built institutions (mines, schools, hospitals and so on) that supported the general progress of their own people.
The Afrikaners did the same during apartheid. They built state-owned companies, schools, hospitals and other institutions that advanced the socioeconomic interests of the Afrikaner nation.
Go to any English or Afrikaner community today, and you will still find well-functioning public institutions in those areas.
It may not be politically correct to admit it, but white South Africans have every reason to be proud of their previous governments for erecting an enduring institutional architecture for their long-lasting comfort.
Condemn white people all you like, but you will not find an unoppressed group of human beings anywhere in the world that works for the empowerment of another group. Human beings are selfish creatures.
What, then, have black people done for themselves? To answer this question, go to any township or rural village. Visit schools and hospitals there, and ask if, after almost 30 years in power, black people have a reason to be proud of the ANC?
The question is the same: which enduring public institutions has the ANC built to sustain the long-lasting comfort of black people? If you don’t know how to start, take Eskom as an example.
That brings us to the most harrowing truth: the ANC has not only destroyed the SA state, it has also ravaged the collective image of black people.
When the Chinese or white people look at SA today, they see the mess and conclude that the only thing black people can do is to destroy – not build.
Just as white South Africans are associated with apartheid, black people must take ownership of what the party they have been voting for, the ANC, has done. The same applies to black Zimbabweans; Zanu-PF has been their party.
Whether we like it or not, the history of the ANC will also implicate the entire black nation in the destruction of SA.
The final question will be: what did black people do when the ANC destroyed their country?
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.