A few years ago, a clip trended on social media about a young woman called Marelize who was learning to ride a bicycle. She was doing quite well on the rugby ground where she was practising until she suddenly changed course and without any obvious reason, rode straight into the goalpost. Her mother, who was filming her, can be heard exclaiming in shock: “My f*k, Marelize!”
Some days, when it comes to the stupid things political parties do, I want to use the words of Marelize’s mum out of exasperation. Last weekend was such an occasion.
The ANC’s list of candidates for Parliament was leaked by someone working at the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC). The ANC was furious and insisted on an investigation by the IEC, which promptly apologised and sacked the person involved. I’m not 100% sure why the incredible outrage, since the list was made public the next day, but it provided a welcome distraction for the ANC from the real media story — the names on the list.
Despite promising that it would not include members who had been implicated in State Capture and corruption, a number of these dubious characters made it back on to the ANC list in positions high enough to be guaranteed a seat.
Why, oh why is it so difficult for the ANC to once and for all get rid of these people?
Opinion polls tell us that South Africans no longer trust politicians — especially those from the governing party. According to a report by the Institute of Justice and Reconciliation in December 2023, trust in leadership has plummeted to an all-time low. Up to 80% of South Africans believe that political leaders are untrustworthy and that corruption persists without any real will among leaders to restrain or curb it.
I do believe that President Cyril Ramaphosa wants and has always wanted to fight corruption in South Africa and his party. In 2013, when I returned to South Africa after 12 years in Ireland, I was shocked by the state of the governing party. Former colleagues pointed out many who had allegedly been involved in corruption, but did so only in whispers. Out of fear for their lives and futures, they dared not speak out.
After Ramaphosa’s victory at the ANC’s Nasrec conference in 2017, things started to change and it quickly became apparent that there was a new sheriff in town. Honest and hardworking ANC members were buoyant and hopeful that the crooks would finally be exposed and removed. Many were exposed, but getting rid of them was a different story.
In the 2019 elections, the then secretary-general of the ANC, Ace Magashule, still had control over the party’s lists. He ensured that many of the Zuma-ites who would later be implicated in the Zondo Report on State Capture made it into Parliament, where they remain to this day.
In August 2020, Ramaphosa sent shock waves through the ANC when he wrote an open letter to the party members about corruption in its ranks. Not only was the letter brutally honest, it was also released to the public. This was unprecedented in an organisation which insists on dealing with issues “within the family”. Many worried that Ramaphosa wouldn’t survive.
He did. Of course, there are still questions about why $580,000 was stuffed into a couch on his game farm, but he should be congratulated for the courageous steps he took to try to combat corruption in the ANC.
Now it seems that at this last, very important hurdle, the ANC and Ramaphosa are falling again. How can voters trust that the ANC is behaving differently when so many of those who have been accused of wrongdoing are on their way back to Parliament?
I understand that the ANC’s selection process is democratic and “bottom-up” and that it can’t always control whom the branches put forward or vote for, but the party’s constitution gives the leadership the power to remove names from parliamentary lists if they are not suitable.
So why wasn’t this done? We deserve to know the truth.
Of course, the ANC is not the only party that has people with troublesome histories on its parliamentary list, but as the governing party, there is surely a higher moral claim on it to — at a minimum — put people of impeccable character on this list, especially since so many of the economic and social challenges that we experience today were caused by corrupt people who were either part of the ANC in government or linked to them.
Political leadership matters. Not only is it important that the top leader is morally sound, it should also be true of everyone who represents the party on taxpayers’ money.
The ANC will have to do better if it wants South Africans to keep voting for it. DM