ANC line-up is reassuring of the party’s demise

There’s something reassuring about the line-up for the ANC leadership contest at the party’s December national conference.

Potential candidates are so dreadful that, whoever is chosen as ANC president, the party will continue its inexorable decline. President Cyril Ramaphosa has lost support in key constituencies, including fractious ANC branches, business, and the commentariat.

Potential challengers Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and former health minister Zweli Mkhize are factional and tainted. Rank outsiders, such as former deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, lack the grassroot support to enter this fray.

At the weekend, Sisulu evoked astonishment when she posted images of herself in camouflage fatigues, sashaying awkwardly between lines of similarly clad uMkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans’ Association (MKMVA) members.

She was “inspecting” them, although it’s difficult to imagine what criteria were used to adjudge the motley crew.

Certainly not precision, discipline or cohesion, which are the hallmarks of most military parades.

She also danced and clapped along with them, without enhancing her image, while they sang: “Minister Lindiwe Sisulu is our general.”

Bear in mind that MKMVA, whose most famous toy soldier is Carl Niehaus (dressed by Pep Stores) was disbanded by the ANC in June last year. Toy soldiers are revolting. Sisulu’s participation in Saturday’s MKMVA event defied the ANC she wants to lead.

Akin to bombing your own ship. This was not the first time she has cocked a snook at President Cyril Ramaphosa to boost her credibility among his opponents. In January, she said Ramaphosa “misrepresented” a meeting she had with him.

also read: ANC’s attitude will be nail in the coffin

Ramaphosa had announced that she had apologised for her adverse comments about the judiciary. She said she had not apologised. On the same radical economic transformation ticket is Mkhize. In horseracing terms they may be what was formerly called a dupla, where the first two can finish in any order.

Analysts are grouping Sisulu and Mkhize together. Mkhize resigned as health minister last August, after being implicated in the R150 million Digital Vibes scandal where a contract was irregularly awarded to his associates. Recurring rumours of his bid for leadership gained traction over the weekend. Questions of news judgment arise.

In October last year, Mkhize applied for a court review of the Special Investigating Unit report which fingered him. He filed a supplementary affidavit last week. Why did that supplementary filing make front-page news in the Sunday Times, when there was nothing substantively new in the newspaper report?

Equally curious is this passage from the digital version of Sunday Times story: “Mkhize’s Willowfontein homestead in Pietermaritzburg is buzzing with aides and his diary is full of appointments with visitors from as far as Limpopo – it resembles a command post and a nerve centre for his political future.

“When a Sunday Times team visited Mkhize’s home on Friday, there were at least nine vehicles in the yard.”

Ooooh, nine vehicles. Why all this fuss about Mkhize when there is no news angle? Clearly there is a campaign to keep him in the headlines.

Whoever is funding it is on a losing streak. No matter whom the ANC elects in December, they won’t win the SA presidency in the 2024 election. Let them squabble. The ANC party is over.