South Africans face a bleak reality: ANC power struggles and weak opposition leave the nation without trustworthy leaders for the future.
The speculation that ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula and deputy president Paul Mashatile have agreed a truce and to work together in the party’s leadership race is bizarre… but disturbing at the same time.
It’s as if Tony Soprano and Don Corleone were getting together to break bread, leaving the sub-machine-guns at the door of the ristorante.
Fair enough, those wise guys are fictional, but the ANC as a mafia organisation is closer to reality than fantasy.
And both Mbaks and Mashatile have had clouds of suspicion hanging over their heads through questionable dealings, so the fact that they are allying up might well indicate they are also going to divvy up the carcass of the South African taxpayer, true to long ANC form.
ALSO READ: Why a pact between Mashatile and Mbalula is a recipe for disaster for the ANC
The sad and worrying aspect of the whole leadership race in the ANC is that there doesn’t seem to be another candidate with a high enough profile to challenge these two.
And even if there were, it is highly likely that he or she is already entrenched in the organisation, meaning it can only be business as usual.
And we all know what that means… Just as unfortunate is the reality that no opposition party looks like being able to rule, either.
