Selling SA's sovereignty is highest treason

The latest claims from the highest levels of national leadership that the Gupta business empire has been offering cabinet posts to various leaders of the ANC have reinforced the view among rank and file party members that a process is underway to subjugate the leadership, the party and the nation to unsavoury business interests.

It must be stated categorically that any delegation by President Jacob Zuma of his constitutional powers to the Gupta family would be nothing short of selling our sovereignty and thus our right as a nation to self-determination.

Such conduct by a president would amount to political high treason of the highest order!

There is a general feeling that the ANC leadership has been shielding the president beyond necessity – and for far too long.

In this mad defence of the indefensible, the ANC leadership has sacrificed many comrades to protect this one individual.

Indeed the ANC leadership seems to be behaving like a group of obedient disciples of the Jacob Zuma cult who must praise and defend everything done or said by his holiness, President Zuma.

Meanwhile, we ordinary members of the ANC are expected to behave like evangelists, going door to door to explain the “scriptures” of how wonderful and remarkable our leader is.

It is as if we have been fed opium that stops us from thinking critically and independently, so that we emulate those churchgoers who have allowed themselves to be fed snakes or grass by devilish so-called pastors.

This blind obsession on the part of the ANC leadership with a leading figure has been the priority, rather than the welfare of the country, the ANC and its entire membership.

This makes virtually the entire ANC leadership complicit in the cardinal political sin of selling the soul of the ANC and the country to the Guptas and such business interests.

In their quest to defend president Zuma our leadership has been dragging the country towards a cliff edge with not a care of who says what.

The political counsel of veterans of our movement such as Ben Turok, Kgalema Motlanthe and others, has been treated with such disdain by the current ANC leadership that you would think these respectable veterans are counter revolutionaries hellbent on destroying the ANC.

This is all done in defence of his holiness, President Zuma.

As a result of the actions of our leadership, the ANC is fast losing all credibility and moral standing in society.

For any political organisation to lose these two important political ingredients, however popular it might be, means its political power hangs precariously in the balance.

In a democratic context, the political hegemony of the ANC rests on the masses of our people recognising the party as a true representative of their interests.

Where there seems to be a feeling that the ANC represents the Guptas instead of the masses, ANC hegemony will start to wither to a point where it dries up altogether.

It is therefore as a result of seriously disconcerting poor leadership, that we face the possibility of the ANC losing power. The scary part of this unfolding drama is that if this happens, there is no guarantee that all in the ANC will relinquish power without bloody political violence.

We all should be aware that the trappings of power can provide so many comforts that relinquishing them can be difficult, even a matter of life and death.

We are already seeing the signs of this nightmare scenario materialising in some provinces.

There is also a heightened possibility of rigging elections.

It is an incontrovertible fact that some, if not many, decisions made by the ANC leadership in defence of president Zuma have not countenanced the expectation of our people that the ANC represents their interests.

Instead we have seen arrogant decisions that present the ANC as being inimical to the overarching strategic goals the organisation is committed to under its constitution.

Indeed, beyond its sycophancy the ANC leadership seems to have arrogated to itself the status of a politico-business cabal organised around the preservation of President Zuma, the chief master of political patronage.

If the claim that over 80% of the ANC’s national executive members members have business interests is true, then this assertion is not far-fetched.

Personally this has given rise to my anxiety over whether I am still truly a member of an organisation called the ANC, or am just part of a compendium of loose groupings united by self-interest around one man.

Under the current circumstances, one observes that other ordinary members of the ANC feel no sense of security that when things go awry, the leadership of our organisation will act in defence of our common heritage, the ANC!

I would therefore appeal to the leadership to dispel these uncertainties by acting in line with the historic mission and vision of the ANC, to make decisions that will not only secure the continued existence of the organisation but also ensure that the future of our great nation is fully secure.

No amount of convoluted political statements will satisfy people anymore.

What is needed is decisive action against those who act with impunity as they destroy the only place we can call home: South Africa.

Such decisive action must of necessity include the removal of Zuma as president of the country and the ANC.

If the ANC leadership fails to do this, they will confirm the adage “out of nothing, nothing comes” which in this context means that the ANC no longer exists and there will be no serious consequences for Zuma selling our country to the highest bidder.

Mzukisi Makatse is an ordinary member of the ANC writing in his personal capacity