It is very unfortunate that the book launch of Pieter-Louis Myburgh’s Gangster State had to be disrupted by members of the ANCYL and ANC. This is an indicator of the quality of membership that the ANCYL and ANC have. Such behaviour is not acceptable.

Secretary-General Ace Magashule’s supporters need to understand they are tarnishing the name of the ANC and bringing the organisation into disrepute. We are going into elections and the ANC does not need more bad publicity. This makes it difficult for honest and disciplined members of the organisation to defend such behaviour.

The issue of personality cults is the biggest problem in the ANC. We have so many “members of members” who will do anything to defend wrong things, who become praise singers without taking into account the damage they are inflicting on the image of the organisation in the name of defending individuals.

There is nothing wrong with being there for a fellow comrade, but behaving like a bunch of gangsters is really unacceptable. What I saw on the news about the Sandton book launch of Pieter-Louis Myburgh’s Gangster State left one wondering – is this the ANC of OR Tambo? Why is the liberation movement’s image being tarnished for the sake of defending individuals who can use proper channels to clear their names?

Magashule must come out publicly and condemn this behaviour by those who are supporting him, as they damaging the image of the ANC. We don’t need such behaviour moving forward.

This behaviour illustrates that political education is really needed in the ANC to curb the phenomenon of “members of members” in the ANC. We need more level and sober-minded comrades in the ANC that will really understand that the revolution is about the people and not about being praise singers of ANC leaders as young people.

We need to move away from such politics if we are to unite the organisation. Behaving as praise singers weakens the organisation and undermines working towards a united organisation. We seem to be scoring own goals because of members who want to impress certain ANC members by being praise singers, who behave like gangsters instead of activists. The ANC needs activists, not people who behave like gangsters and call themselves comrades.

The ANC needs to take those who were seen to be leading campaigns of #handsoff XXX to the disciplinary committee, as they are bringing the organisation into disrepute and tarnishing the image of the ANC.

What I saw on Tuesday was not an ANC working towards the renewal of the organisation. What people need to understand in working towards the renewal of the organisation is that we need the behaviour of comrades to change, especially when confronted with things that do not make them happy.

Being emotional when dealing with any matter does not help anyone at all. We need more level-headed people in the ANC if we are to see a strong ANC going to the National General Council in June 2020. At the rate we are going, the National General Council and the next ANC National Conference will witness worse behaviour than we have seen in the past.

This ANC needs to be saved from those who are praise singers, as there is nothing revolutionary about the behaviour. DM