ANC spirit willing but flesh is weak

Despite its myriad conferences and committee meetings, proper, thoughtful introspection has never been an ANC strong point.

Whenever it has felt under attack, it has scapegoated everything from whites to imperialists to enemies of the revolution.

That last is ironic because – despite what many right-wingers believe – Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin are spinning in their graves at ANC claims it is leading a “national democratic revolution” towards socialism.

One look at the car park at yesterday’s ANC national general council – as Daily Maverick did – showed that the struggle has been good to many people in the fashionable gold, green and black party T-shirts.

Critics might call it “neo-colonialism”, others say the party resembles a criminal mafia. Both assessments are correct.

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Yet, President Cyril Ramaphosa ditched his normally waffly persona yesterday and was remarkably candid about the ANC decline in recent years.

He singled out Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe party as being responsible for siphoning support away from the ANC and partly responsible for its poor showing in last year’s general elections.

It could well be that Ramaphosa was trying to galvanise the ANC faithful to unify in the face of a common enemy.

Yet his comment that MK capitalised on citizens’ anger about endemic state corruption, unemployment and poor service delivery, was a deflection.

It was not only MK supporters who have seen this – you’d have to be blind to miss it.

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As an aside, it is clear that those who flocked to Zuma are clearly not that fussed about people putting their sticky fingers in the state’s piggy bank.

Still, Ramaphosa and the comrades have a big task on their hands to radically reform the ANC into a party which truly stands for the people.

The spirit may be willing but the flesh of the organisation is exceedingly weak.