In charge but not in control

AFTER months of squabbling the ANC has clearly had enough, and sent its big guns down to the Eastern Cape to fire the executive mayor of the province’s biggest metropolitan municipality.

The mere fact that President Jacob Zuma and his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa led the party’s top leaders to intervene in the increasingly absurd infighting crippling Nelson Mandela Bay speaks volumes about the level to which this matter has escalated.

The two antagonists are now out of the picture.

The ANC Nelson Mandela Bay’s regional chairman, Nceba Faku, abruptly quit a day before having to confront Zuma and the party heavyweights, citing personal business reasons.

Then on Sunday the mayor, Zanoxolo Wayile, was effectively sacked and “redeployed” to parliament.

Hopefully it will close a year of increasingly acrimonious conflict between the two after Faku was re- elected chairman of the party’s regional executive for the Bay – in a challenge from Wayile.

Factions supporting either side even came to violent blows, and there was a bizarre report, denied at the time, that Wayile had been held hostage in the ANC’s Port Elizabeth offices.

Unfortunately for the NMB, and the province generally, the damage is unlikely to be repaired quickly.

The same kinds of conflicts between party bosses and deployed political executives in municipalities – including Buffalo City, King Sabata Dalindyebo, Mnquma, Mbizana and others – continues to bedevil service delivery to our people that is most urgently needed.

Adding to the tensions are the trade unions, who have a major stake and constituency of their own and who feel their needs and aspirations are being ignored.

The strong, decisive, action shown at the weekend may help dampen down such divisive fervour – but that remains to be seen.

The ANC is in the fortunate position of having a massive electoral mandate from the people of this province.

Certainly, without such a rockbed of support they would have long been voted out of authority.

That support may start to weaken if the party can’t get to grips with rogue powermongers and get their own deployees focused sharply on the jobs they are supposed to be doing. The ANC cannot afford to become too complacent simply because the Eastern Cape has to date been fully behind the party at the ballots.

To borrow a quote from sporting activist and former Bafana Bafana team manager Zola Dunywa, the ANC needs to realise that it may be in charge, but it is not in control.