JAUNDICED EYE

This situation is predictable and avoidable. The problem is one of the ANC’s own making.

Over almost three decades in power, one thing has always been a consistent point of pride for the ANC. It is not a mere political party. It is a national liberation movement.

It’s an important emotional distinction. No matter how lofty their goals and storied their past, political parties that thrive are basically pragmatic entities. They’re organised around agreed goals that are constantly being adapted in the face of changing circumstances.

Not so the ANC’s national liberation movement. It has a historically ordained mission to lead “the people”, kicking and screaming if necessary, to a Utopian promised land.

The stone tablets containing the ANC’s chiselled commandments come straight from Marx via Lenin. The party may have to, for now, tolerate competing political groupings, but at heart, it views differing opinions as inherently illegitimate.

This egotism manifests itself in hilariously po-faced ways. The ANC was recently enraged by ActionSA’s leader, Herman Mashaba, ridiculing the use of the term “comrade” when addressing party members.

Mashaba said the word comrade had developed a new meaning in South Africa. It now meant “thugs and thieves” and would be banned in ActionSA. As owners of the “comrade” copyright, the ANC issued an angry statement denouncing Mashaba’s heresy. It demonstrated, said the ANC, the “fascist tendencies” in ActionSA.

It was the “unfortunate danger” of such “populist manoeuvres” that they would “deliberately mislead society, and this must be rejected with the contempt it deserves”.

While all political parties and politicians are selfish creatures, operating in functional democracies keeps them vaguely honest. They know that if they too blatantly feather their nests or kick too many cans down the road without resolution, the electorate will turf them from power.

That is a reality the ANC has yet to face, for until now, the electorate has largely accepted the ANC’s liberation myth at face value. The party’s plunging popularity at the polls is a welcome sign that voters are moving beyond ideology to pragmatism.

They want political parties that do things, not liberation movements that dream about doing things.