Dear ANC members in good standing.
When this #GNU euphoria finally sinks in and the dust settles, we must have a frank discussion on what happened and how we can claim the lost ground. We must reflect on some of the technicalities that could have attributed to our loss and some of the blunders that could have been avoided.
We need to frankly opine whether we are on a precipice to the end of time as anything with a lifespan would eventually end or whether we have the capacity to defy not only nature, but to rewrite the history of what happened to other African countries in as far as post liberation struggle is concerned. It is common cause that many African countries with the same history as ours did not last for 15 years after they achieved freedom from their oppressors. Well, ours is unique as many countries got their independence around 1955-57 up to the early 60s, we got sustained oppression in a different way from the late 40s when the National Party took over, until 1994.
One of my most respected scholars and ANC leader who is also an emerging veteran, did warn us in one of the lectures he delivered during my time as the ANCYL Deputy Provincial Secretary in Limpopo. Cde Rudolf Phala, warned us that if we don’t compliment freedom with hard work, ANC is likely to end up on the same route that the party of Jomo Kenyatta took. He said the party of Jomo Kenyatta is not the same party that was led by his son, the former president of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, the leader of Jubilee Party, whilst his father’s party was Kenya African National Union (KANU).
What Comrade Rudolph Phala was essentially saying is that, we have a choice weather the same situation in Kenya can happen in our lifetime or we can avoid it and he gave us some pointers on how we can avoid it and some amongst the few are the following:
1. Internally as members, we could start by avoiding being triumphalist. This means that when we go to conferences, and obviously there will be lobby groups which must immediately disband after the conference, but there seems to be a fashionable thing in the ANC to treat those who lost the conference with disdain and remind them constantly about what happened in the last summer, thus making them feel unwelcome in the organisation. We often forget how we are going to need them during elections to close rank and file to defend the gains of democracy and by the time we reach out to them, despondency would have quelled. With the advent of social media, we often make fun of them in the glare of the hoi polloi and for everyone to see including ANC potential voters and we get surprised when our people don’t turn out to go and vote. We have more than 6 million of people who didn’t go cast their vote and with the projections of the current results, 4 million could be ANC voters.
2. Externally, he lamented the issue of rampant corruption with impunity by ANC leaders and the display of finer things in front of the poor majority who continue to live in squalor and sometimes we even go to their townships and rural villages with flashy and big cars under the disguised silly notion of supporting township and rural economy. We go there and consume expensive beverages in front is them and sometimes, male comrades go to the extent of taking girls away from our poor township and rural voters, luring them with all sorts of expensive beverages and money being splashed alll over. All these may sound petty, but they contribute to voter boycott and voters opting for other parties with the same outlook as ours.
My last observation on the current situation is the new IEC law or act. I don’t think as ANC, we did enough to teach our voters and volunteers on the new act, especially section 24a. Last we registered many people online, especially the grade 12 learners. Many of them went to University this year and on the 29th May 2024, chances are they didn’t manage to go home to cast their votes. It could be that many of them were returned at the polling station, because they were not registered at the University, College or TVET voting station where they were as we registered them at home during the online application. Because they didn’t know about the section 24A online application, which closed on the 17th of May, 2024, chances are that they did not vote and most of them were to vote for ANC. This problem would have affected our Police, Soldiers and Jobseekers. The over 1000 police officers who were deployed to KZN on the eve of elections did not know that they will be in KZN before the closing date of the Section 24A on thr 17th May 2024 and this applies to soldiers. Our forever migrating jobseekers would not know or care for they knew, maybe they travelled from their voting districts for opportunities just 2 before the election day. Remember, in the past, for as long as you are in Limpopo, you could vote anywhere in the province for all the ballots, but if you found yourself in Gauteng on election day, whilst registered in Limpopo, you’d be given a national ballot. If the latter is still possible, many could not do so as the IEC VDM system was not functioning on the day of election in many parts of the country. I know of one old man, Mr Hlako in my Village is who brazed the cold weather to cast his vote in the early morning and was returned because he was registered in Gauteng and the Presiding officer couldn’t allow him to vote citing the fact that he was supposed to be verified on the system and it was not working. He came to the station 3 times until he threw a towel. This could have been the case in many parts of the country.
The bottom line is that as things stand, we are a 40% party and we are forced to be creative with language and continue to be the leader of society regardless of the shortfalls. The elected leadership is faced with a mammoth task that no ordinary man on the streets can easily comprehend and believe you me it is not easy for them to be seating with their nemesis and yesterday’s enemies who killed our people with impunity, like IFP in Thokoza, and other parts of KZN, as well as a racist party like DA which doesn’t like anything about transforming the imbalances of the past and party that is not worker-friendly. But we are here because we ignored all the warning signs and the question is what is to be done? How do we regain the lost ground to continue fighting for a better life for all and for all we mean all races, but biased to Africans and blacks in particular.
My name remains Matome Taueatsoala,
Mmirwa a mandodole, malodola mphale
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