Like never before, the seats in our national parliament and other provincial legislatures have recently become seats of political squirming. Doubtless, this has, in part, been occasioned by the arrival of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).
The EFF has carefully crafted a strategy to become a force to be reckoned with in parliament – one that the people, especially the poor and working class – can see as an alternative to the ANC.
They seem determined to achieve this objective by any means, including anarchy. This is by no means surprising if one looks at the genesis of this party and the political outlook of many of its leading protagonists.
Such incidents are normal misbehaviour in any vibrant parliamentary debate. It is precisely the reason for which we have parliamentary rules. We do not need to have the secretary general of the ANC issuing angry statements about such incidents because this has the potential to poison the entire political landscape.
In fact, any serious political player from whichever side of the political spectrum, should know politics is about power. All political parties will do whatever they must within constitutionally permissible parameters to contest for this power. With parliament being a terrain and a site of power it will inevitably become a battleground for such political contestation. Absolutely nothing wrong with that!
The ANC has itself identified parliament as a site of struggle to push for a progressive and radical transformation agenda. This it intends to do by using both its persuasive and numerical power, pushing through legislation that augurs well with its stated political intention.
Identifying parliament as a site of struggle precisely recognises that we will not have it easy given the agenda of the opposition parties.
Instead of running around trying to reduce parliament into a dormant elephant, we should be dealing with our own subjective weaknesses that have exposed us so severely to the opposition. We all know what these are but we decide to pick destruction rather than deal with them.
The ANC has been riled up under the severe strain of a strong presidential centre that has marshalled considerable resources to do anything to protect this centre. All of us have collectively closed our eyes, hoping the strain visited on our organisation by the incumbent president will just go away. Unfortunately it will not. Instead things are getting worse.
The integrity committee tabling its work with the ANC working committee will have failed in its duties if it has not looked at the issues that surround Zuma and their negative impact on the ANC.
South Africa now stands at the crossroad between progress and disaster. To save ourselves from disaster and pull the country back to the path of democratic progress will need strong, dynamic and fresh activists who have not sold their souls to the highest political bidders.
There are many of these both within the ANC and in our country. They just need to summon the courage of their convictions and do the right thing
Mzukisi Makatse is a member of the ANC, writing in his own personal capacity.
ANC: focus on weakness
The EFF has carefully crafted a strategy to become a force to be reckoned with in parliament – one that the people, especially the poor and working class – can see as an alternative to the ANC.
They seem determined to achieve this objective by any means, including anarchy. This is by no means surprising if one looks at the genesis of this party and the political outlook of many of its leading protagonists.
Such incidents are normal misbehaviour in any vibrant parliamentary debate. It is precisely the reason for which we have parliamentary rules. We do not need to have the secretary general of the ANC issuing angry statements about such incidents because this has the potential to poison the entire political landscape.
In fact, any serious political player from whichever side of the political spectrum, should know politics is about power. All political parties will do whatever they must within constitutionally permissible parameters to contest for this power. With parliament being a terrain and a site of power it will inevitably become a battleground for such political contestation. Absolutely nothing wrong with that!
The ANC has itself identified parliament as a site of struggle to push for a progressive and radical transformation agenda. This it intends to do by using both its persuasive and numerical power, pushing through legislation that augurs well with its stated political intention.
Identifying parliament as a site of struggle precisely recognises that we will not have it easy given the agenda of the opposition parties.
Instead of running around trying to reduce parliament into a dormant elephant, we should be dealing with our own subjective weaknesses that have exposed us so severely to the opposition. We all know what these are but we decide to pick destruction rather than deal with them.
The ANC has been riled up under the severe strain of a strong presidential centre that has marshalled considerable resources to do anything to protect this centre. All of us have collectively closed our eyes, hoping the strain visited on our organisation by the incumbent president will just go away. Unfortunately it will not. Instead things are getting worse.
The integrity committee tabling its work with the ANC working committee will have failed in its duties if it has not looked at the issues that surround Zuma and their negative impact on the ANC.
South Africa now stands at the crossroad between progress and disaster. To save ourselves from disaster and pull the country back to the path of democratic progress will need strong, dynamic and fresh activists who have not sold their souls to the highest political bidders.
There are many of these both within the ANC and in our country. They just need to summon the courage of their convictions and do the right thing
Mzukisi Makatse is a member of the ANC, writing in his own personal capacity.
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