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Mcebo Dlamini
I will say certain things without shouting because shouting often results in us speaking past each other even when we are agreeing on certain issues.
It is clear to everyone that the sentiments of Dr Makhosi Khoza on President Jacob Zuma and the ANC resonate with a considerable number of South Africans.
Her display of discontent with the current state of affairs is a discontent that the people of South Africa share. The ANC has a duty to represent the views of the people and address the concerns of its constituency.
The consistent threats to Dr Khoza, after merely expressing what is already engraved and harboured in the minds and hearts of South Africans, is contradictory and paradoxical.
The question then is: do we privilege technicalities of organisational discipline or do we privilege the substance and content of the issues raised by Dr Khoza?
It is a foregone issue that a majority of South Africans and members of the ANC are unhappy with Zuma for issues that are a common cause to us all, Nkandla, the Guptas, among others.
To then vilify and seek to intimidate Dr Khoza under the guise of organisational discipline is hypocritical, to say the least.
The ANC has deep seated challenges that are going to require more than just the invocation of rules and constitution of the movement.
To do this is to deliberately ignore the elephant in the room and we cannot afford to do this because the livelihoods of those we are elected to serve are at stake.
The ANC must take responsibility and confront the root cause of this rot that manifests as factionalism instead of shifting the goal post by persecuting Dr Khoza as the person who is bringing the organisation into disrepute.
This misdiagnosis will further mislead the movement and deepen the fractures within it. If there is anything that has brought the ANC into disrepute is the conspicuous consumption of state resource by the current leadership.
It is cronyism, theft, greed and these are issues that need be confronted directly, without fear. It cannot be that the desires and concerns of the people are silenced using threats and formalities.
The current leadership of the ANC must be brave enough to introspect the reasons why loyal members of the ANC have repeatedly sought alternative means to express their grievances under their leadership.
This is not an easy question but it is one that nonetheless deserves attention and scrutiny. Under the current leadership Dr Khoza is not the first member of the ANC to behave in this manner, not so long ago Pravin Gordan and Mcebisi Jonas did the same thing.
We need to ask why, under the current leadership, there have been two political parties that broke away from the ANC and also why the alliance is on the verge of destruction.
These are important questions and finding answers that are not informed by factionalism might help us mend the fractures that exist in the ANC.
It is true that organisational discipline is important, and the ANC must not fall victim to behaviour that will set a wrong precedence.
In the same light, the description of what amounts to this behaviour must not be selective and convenient. It is a wrong precedence to have leaders and deployees who are greedy, corrupt and who use the organisation not to serve the people but to enrich themselves.
It is equally wrong precedence to have deployees who defend those who are greedy, corrupt and self-enriching.
The national executive committee (NEC) of the ANC has enough capability, and it is well within their powers, to remove the president if it is no longer in the best interest of the people and the movement to have him as the president.
Voting the president out through the aid of opposition parties and through secret ballot will not only be an indictment on the president but on the entire movement.
That is to say, the August 8 vote of no confidence is not only a no confidence of the president but of the ANC. When all is said and done the ANC, especially the leadership must take responsibility and not intimidate members who are raising genuine concerns where they have failed to take action to avoid the current state of affairs.
- Dlamini is former Wits SRC President and ANC Liliesleaf Farm branch member.
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