Support for the ANC has been in continuous decline since the Mangaung elective conference in December 2012. But it was after the Nkandla saga that this trajectory took a serious nosedive in all provinces except KwaZulu-Natal, the home province of President Jacob Zuma.
The national executive committee elected at Mangaung by branch delegates continuously seeks to satisfy their selfish interests and those of their funders – the tenderpreneurs – at the expense of the electorate.
The NEC appears to have no sense of what is right or wrong. It blindly supported the president on Nkandla against the then public protector, Thuli Madonsela, showing loyalty to the Zuma instead of loyalty to the national constitution as represented by the public protector.
This shows that the way South Africa is governed under the flawed Electoral Law. This is the most dangerous, most undemocratic and weakest link in our constitutional democracy.
When forced to choose between the constitution and Luthuli House, the NEC choose Luthuli House.
When forced to choose between their consciences and Luthuli House, they choose the latter.
This is all because of slate politics.
Under our current electoral law, party headquarters is the de facto power that decides whether you are an MP or discarded or redeployed.
Party headquarters is in charge and has replaced the people’s power, as was envisaged in the Freedom Charter.
In contradiction with the spirit and the letter of the rest of the constitution, the party list committee – and with it, the president, the NEC and the herd of ANC MPs feeding at the trough in the National Assembly and all the provinces except the Western Cape – are elevated way above the constitution.
This is why ANC MPs supported the president on the Nkandla saga.
They broke the law to satisfy the wishes of Luthuli House and the president.
Instead of being loyal to the constitution, they chose loyalty to the deployment committee of the ANC.
Most ANC MPs have lost their consciences in pursuit of their financial interests.
Voters are faced with this reality, of ANC MPs whose allegiance is to their own pockets instead of the constitution.
Incapable of changing direction, the NEC is leading the ANC to a probable electoral defeat in 2019. There appears no hope of salvation from this direction.
As joint parents in the constitutional negotiations which created the electoral law, the ANC created the prospect of its own downfall.
The only reasonable alternative is for the NEC to step down, and for an interim committee to be established which must prepare for a consultative conference of the ANC in place of the policy conference.
But this is unlikely to be accepted by Luthuli House.
This will ultimately lead to electoral defeat. Instead, business as usual we will prepare for the policy conference early next year, followed by the elective conference in December 2017.
These conferences will not bring any credible change or cleansing of the ANC or avert possible defeat in 2019.
The branches are owned by the same tenderpreneurs who elected the Mangaung slate, which means the policy conference and subsequent elective conference will be attended by the same delegates with minor variations.
The conclusion is that most NEC members will be retained with minor changes. The same for the party slate.
The more things appear to change, the more they remain the same.
Every ANC executive party member, all ANC members of parliament must be held individually accountable for the decline of the party’s fortunes.
Only the electorate – the people themselves – can chart the way forward. If voters decide to vote continually for thieves, they become accomplices in corruption and the victims of their own folly.
We, the people of South Africa, must become the creators of our own future once again, as we have done again and again since 1912.
The current behaviour of ANC parliamentarians is not surprising. They are accountable to Luthuli House, not to the constitution, or to the people. They are deployed as a bloc by Luthuli House, and not by the people themselves, voting for individual candidates, organised in constituencies.
As for ANC parliamentarians, they must choose between saving the ANC from collapse or protecting Zuma.
If they continue protecting Zuma, the ANC might well die in their hands.
They will be willing pallbearers to carrying the ANC coffin to Nkandla’s cemetery. The ANC brand will be utterly shattered in the foreseeable future.
The choice is between removal of one man from office and the creation of a new, more democratic electoral law, or the downfall of the country, and the ANC.
Omry Makgoale is rank and file member of the ANC. This is is personal view
Greedy NEC will be ANC’s pallbearers
The national executive committee elected at Mangaung by branch delegates continuously seeks to satisfy their selfish interests and those of their funders – the tenderpreneurs – at the expense of the electorate.
The NEC appears to have no sense of what is right or wrong. It blindly supported the president on Nkandla against the then public protector, Thuli Madonsela, showing loyalty to the Zuma instead of loyalty to the national constitution as represented by the public protector.
This shows that the way South Africa is governed under the flawed Electoral Law. This is the most dangerous, most undemocratic and weakest link in our constitutional democracy.
When forced to choose between the constitution and Luthuli House, the NEC choose Luthuli House.
When forced to choose between their consciences and Luthuli House, they choose the latter.
This is all because of slate politics.
Under our current electoral law, party headquarters is the de facto power that decides whether you are an MP or discarded or redeployed.
Party headquarters is in charge and has replaced the people’s power, as was envisaged in the Freedom Charter.
In contradiction with the spirit and the letter of the rest of the constitution, the party list committee – and with it, the president, the NEC and the herd of ANC MPs feeding at the trough in the National Assembly and all the provinces except the Western Cape – are elevated way above the constitution.
This is why ANC MPs supported the president on the Nkandla saga.
They broke the law to satisfy the wishes of Luthuli House and the president.
Instead of being loyal to the constitution, they chose loyalty to the deployment committee of the ANC.
Most ANC MPs have lost their consciences in pursuit of their financial interests.
Voters are faced with this reality, of ANC MPs whose allegiance is to their own pockets instead of the constitution.
Incapable of changing direction, the NEC is leading the ANC to a probable electoral defeat in 2019. There appears no hope of salvation from this direction.
As joint parents in the constitutional negotiations which created the electoral law, the ANC created the prospect of its own downfall.
The only reasonable alternative is for the NEC to step down, and for an interim committee to be established which must prepare for a consultative conference of the ANC in place of the policy conference.
But this is unlikely to be accepted by Luthuli House.
This will ultimately lead to electoral defeat. Instead, business as usual we will prepare for the policy conference early next year, followed by the elective conference in December 2017.
These conferences will not bring any credible change or cleansing of the ANC or avert possible defeat in 2019.
The branches are owned by the same tenderpreneurs who elected the Mangaung slate, which means the policy conference and subsequent elective conference will be attended by the same delegates with minor variations.
The conclusion is that most NEC members will be retained with minor changes. The same for the party slate.
The more things appear to change, the more they remain the same.
Every ANC executive party member, all ANC members of parliament must be held individually accountable for the decline of the party’s fortunes.
Only the electorate – the people themselves – can chart the way forward. If voters decide to vote continually for thieves, they become accomplices in corruption and the victims of their own folly.
We, the people of South Africa, must become the creators of our own future once again, as we have done again and again since 1912.
The current behaviour of ANC parliamentarians is not surprising. They are accountable to Luthuli House, not to the constitution, or to the people. They are deployed as a bloc by Luthuli House, and not by the people themselves, voting for individual candidates, organised in constituencies.
As for ANC parliamentarians, they must choose between saving the ANC from collapse or protecting Zuma.
If they continue protecting Zuma, the ANC might well die in their hands.
They will be willing pallbearers to carrying the ANC coffin to Nkandla’s cemetery. The ANC brand will be utterly shattered in the foreseeable future.
The choice is between removal of one man from office and the creation of a new, more democratic electoral law, or the downfall of the country, and the ANC.
Omry Makgoale is rank and file member of the ANC. This is is personal view
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