The ANC’s blind adherence to ideology

THE ANC has painted South Africa into a disastrous corner. This was not out of malice, but stupidity, a failure to get to grips with how the real world works.

Successful governments in the democratic world all function in the same basic way. Every successful governing party has the ability, once in power, to adapt its ideals to reality.

In contrast, almost every recent failure of this government can be traced to it invariably choosing form over substance, posturing over results, and avoidance rather than sweating the hard yards.

Take the successive waves of ugly xenophobia that have periodically swept the country and are right now simmering close to an explosion of violence. The most recent trigger has been the West Rand rape of eight women, allegedly by a group of Lesotho men so-called zama zamas

who enter South Africa illegally to mine, also illegally, shafts and seams that are no longer economically viable for commercial operations.

In response, starting in Gauteng and spreading to other provinces, residents in mining communities have formed vigilante gangs to hunt down the zama zamas. At least one has been killed, and this week, the police rescued another 19 from an angry mob.

The origins of the problem can be traced back to 1994, when the ANC took power for the first time. One of its first actions was to switch off the daunting cordon of electric fences that kept illegal border crossings to a minimum and instead deliberately allowed them to fall into disrepair. This, it explained, was an act of African solidarity, a payback for the sacrifices made by South Africa’s neighbours in hosting ANC guerrilla forces during the liberation Struggle.

The result has been an explosion in illegal immigration. No one truly knows the numbers involved.

In 2011, Stats SA estimated that 6.2million foreigners were in South Africa. In 2021, it revised this to 3.95million. Since the total population in 2011 was less than 52million and is now more than 60million, there’s a lot of justifiable scepticism about the official figures.

While the numbers may be in dispute, the results aren’t. Our poorly trained and abominably led police force, already overwhelmed by home-grown criminality, simply can’t cope, and the baddies know it.

This week, the SA National Defence force was placed on standby because “South Africa is gradually deteriorating into unrest due to criminality”. According to the order, 100 Mamba light armoured vehicle drivers have been placed on standby at 21 SA Infantry Battalion’s Johannesburg base, as well as an initial 200 infantry, “in anticipation of deploying in co-operation with the SA Police Service”.

This situation is predictable and avoidable. The problem is one of the ANC’s own making.

Over almost three decades in power, one thing has always been a consistent point of pride for the ANC. It is not a mere political party. It is a national liberation movement.

It’s an important emotional distinction. No matter how lofty their goals and storied their past, political parties that thrive are basically pragmatic entities. They’re organised around agreed goals that are constantly being adapted in the face of changing circumstances.

Not so the ANC’s national liberation movement. It has a historically ordained mission to lead “the people”, kicking and screaming if necessary, to a Utopian promised land.

The stone tablets containing the ANC’s chiselled commandments come straight from Marx via Lenin. The party may have to, for now, tolerate competing political groupings, but at heart, it views differing opinions as inherently illegitimate.

This egotism manifests itself in hilariously po-faced ways. The ANC was recently enraged by ActionSA’s leader, Herman Mashaba, ridiculing the use of the term “comrade” when addressing party members.

Mashaba said the word comrade had developed a new meaning in South Africa. It now meant “thugs and thieves” and would be banned in ActionSA.

As owners of the “comrade” copyright, the ANC issued an angry statement denouncing Mashaba’s heresy. It demonstrated, said the ANC, the “fascist tendencies” in ActionSA.

It was the “unfortunate danger” of such “populist manoeuvres” that they would “deliberately mislead society, and this must be rejected with the contempt it deserves”.

While all political parties and politicians are selfish creatures, operating in functional democracies keeps them vaguely honest. They know that if they too blatantly feather their nests or kick too many cans down the road without resolution, the electorate will turf them from power.

That is a reality the ANC has yet to face, for until now, the electorate has largely accepted the ANC’s liberation myth at face value. The party’s plunging popularity at the polls is a welcome sign that voters are moving beyond ideology to pragmatism.

They want political parties that do things, not liberation movements that dream about doing things.