By Phakamisa Mayaba
Who will the ANC have to blame on the inevitable day of reckoning come 2029? That is, when its support slips even further in the next national polls, and like an old heavyweight, the once mighty Khongolose is forced to lick his wounds from outside the ring of glory?
We don’t need the surveys and number crunchers to tell us that the party is skating on thin ice. Before last year’s general elections, it seemed as if the pollsters either had it seriously in for the party, or were smoking something. The ANC getting less than 50 percent of the vote? Ludicrous; tell us another one! Then the results started trickling in, and what we saw on the television forced many people to do a double-take. So now, here we are.
The cadres have long been advised — by people inside and outside the party — to get their house in order, but for the most part, it’s been business as usual for the men of Luthuli House as they arrange yet another dumbfounding commission of inquiry as well as what has been reduced to a pathetic National Dialogue — because, sadly, they’re clearly fresh out of ideas, and lack the wherewithal to address the immediate issues that South Africa is grappling with. Just a glance at these horrendous fumblings of the ball lets you know that things are not going to improve any time soon.
In my humble estimate, the three pressing issues of the time are unemployment, immigration and corruption. But instead of tackling them, the party presents us with yet another distraction. They always draw the news cameras and, by default, take the focus off of the barbarism that’s brewing out there in the taxi industry, for example.
Inadvertently, they are another public instance of the party-in-government shooting itself in the foot, and further exposes its pervasive ineptitude. For instance, consider the news that the Madlanga Judicial Commission of Inquiry is unable to start its work because it has not been provided with the necesssary infrastructure.
You’ll recall that this was the commission announced in the wake of KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s sensational allegations of political interference, criminality and corruption in the criminal justice system. The resultant public outrage meant that President Cyril Ramaphosa simply had to act. Or, at least, seem like he was. However, it might well be a little too late in the day for the man who doesn’t command full party support, who is forced to mollycoddle those people who that put him there, and who had his back at a time when his own smallanyana skeletons were tumbling out of the furniture at Phala Phala.
Given the recent announcement that Madlanga’s proceedings would not get under way on the initial commencement date of 1 September, many people are asking whether there is a real political will to get to the bottom of things. ‘It is especially concerning,’ said the chairperson of the parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development, Xola Nqola, ‘that the delay seems to be due to public servants not executing their responsibilities. This commission is of utmost importance to restore credibility for the country.’ Credibility? Hardly a word that springs to mind when you think of our leadership. ‘Public servants not executing their responsibilities’, however, is.
A billion rands were blown on the Zondo commission, but not a single high-profile individual identified in its findings has faced the music. The cost of Madlanga’s upcoming probe is currently pegged at R147.9 million, but in light of our national habits, it might as well be twice, three times, who knows how much more than that. When, under pressure, witnesses start singing at these public probes, everyone gets excited, but then the hype blows over and the final reports are left to gather dust on the president’s desk.
When Angelo Agrizzi said the embattled Bosasa had paid former Cabinet minister Nomvula Mokonyane a monthly retainer, and also supplied her with beer, whisky and meat, the ordinary SAffer thought her fate was sealed. But in her current post as deputy secretary-general of the ANC, she seems to be doing well enough, and so the joke’s on those fools who laughed and called for justice.
Although they may well serve as a delaying tactic, what these commissions cannot do is to stave off the multiplying national troubles, writ so large in the squalor of once clean inner city streets and the hopeless service at virtually every public service point — to such an extent that fringe groups like the xenophobic Operation Dudula are garnering public support from otherwise sound-minded South Africans as they take to forcibly turning away foreign nationals from public health care facilities, or vandalising their stalls and shops.
The visuals are undignified to watch, and the comments are split between the gatvol and those who’ve simply accepted that our beloved country is a long way up the creek without a paddle. Faith in government or law enforcement are at an all-time low, and communities are seemingly rising up to save themselves in ways that increasingly flout the law, inching us ever more precariously towards a banana republic.
The online videos suggest that the vigilante action has the cops out of their depth. Undocumented foreign nationals are flocking in by the hour; illicit drugs and alcohol are a windfall for faceless syndicates, and ordinary people are being pulled out of private vehicles and forced into taxis by merciless marshalls whose idea of the law is that it was written by their bosses.
The war between taxis and e-hailing services has become violent, and if you’ve been in the country long enough, you will know that these tensions can escalate very rapidly, with dire consequences for all, including innocent commuters. So, as high language starts to emanate from the National Dialogue, these are the things that are worrying this writer.
The ANC Youth League has tried to walk back its labelling of the Dialogue as a ‘tea party’. Yet, given the extent to which illustrious society leaders and institiutions have turned their backs on it, this assessment would not be too far off. Add to this the tab, estimated at R450 million, and you want to ask if these guys are okay. Like, really? The entire thing has been severely criticized, yet our caring government has ignored all counsel and gone ahead anyway. Given this, can it be trusted to act on the issues raised in the course of the discussions?
Does hearing matter in the face of inaction? Most importantly; will they have anyone to blame but themselves when they once again ask for your vote in four years’ time, and find that ordinary people have grown tired of the talking? It doesn’t offer any protection from the xenophobes baying for the blood of anyone who sounds ‘funny’, or the taxi marshalls around the corner, and certainly not from the tenderpreneurs who are likely to be the biggest beneficiaries of this Dialogue.
FEATURED IMAGE: A confrontation between members of Operation Dudula and police outside the offices of the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (SERIK) in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 15 July 2025. Image: Jan Bornman / GroundUp.
A well-written and insightful article. Thank you.