Corrupt ANC showing middle finger to voters

Corruption is hurting the ANC and it could, and should, cost the party heavily at the polls.

The corruption reached crass proportions under former president Jacob Zuma.

The pillaging was obscene and unsustainable.

The ANC was finally forced to act and a heavily discredited Zuma was made to depart his leadership roles but remains a member of the party.

President Cyril Ramaphosa came in with the promise of a “new dawn” which would see the economy kick-started through investment and more efficient use of scarce resources.

Most importantly, he told a fed-up populace that the ANC would “turn the tide on corruption”.

The promised policy certainty and security needed for foreign investment was never realised.

Instead, a powerful lobby within the ANC insists that the president is obligated to follow to the letter the Nasrec resolutions on issues such as land expropriation without compensation, and nationalisation of the SA Reserve Bank.

This continues to drive nervous investors away in droves as they find more secure emerging markets to sink their money into.

International goodwill fuelled by his presidency has dwindled and is quickly drying up.

But, everyone hoped he would at least deliver on his promise with regard to cutting out the corrupt rot in the party. After all — this was also in line with a Nasrec resolution.

But, it seems this would be the one exception to the ANC’s insistence on the need to follow to the letter all Nasrec resolutions.

Nothing of much moment has happened to any one of the powerful people who headed up the plundering of the fiscus in the Zuma years.

Instead, they were allowed to continue in their powerful positions and many have fully used this opportunity to further plunder in the midst of this terrifying, paralysing pandemic and the accompanying lockdown which has gutted the economy and fuelled unemployment.

In the midst of misery, hunger, disease and economic depression, the party has seen fit to turn a blind eye to the most grotesque corruption to date.

It seems inconceivable at this stage that the party would do anything to further alienate voters.

But, not at all thwarted by the nation’s anger at the NEC’s decision to reinstate Limpopo officials accused of being part of the looting of the VBS Bank, the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal has now appointed corruption-accused former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede as a member of the provincial legislature.

In doing so, the ANC has again firmly raised its middle finger to its voters.

It sends a message that it does not care what people think of it or its stance on corruption.

It might well find that the voters return the gesture at election time.