MOHAU LECHEKO: ANC hopes dialogue will absolve it of guilt

The ANC lost power on May 29 2024. That loss was real, humiliating and irreversible. The only reason the party continues to have its grip on state power is because it understands its condition: a terminal patient in need of life support.

Since the day after the election the ANC’s primary concern has been survival, not governance. Drawing from the animal kingdom, the ANC has been displaying political “deimatic behaviour” to keep itself in power. Deimatic behaviour is when an animal makes itself look larger than it really is to fend off rivals. The government of national unity (GNU) arrangement is an excellent example of the ANC’s “survivalist creativity”.

The ingenuity begins with the ANC knowing that the DA is trapped by its own doomsday rhetoric from exiting the GNU and seeking new coalition partners. The finesse of the ANC is complete by it keeping the door open for the EFF and MK party to join a “DA-free” GNU in some distant future. This context paralyses the country’s three largest opposition parties and prolongs the ANC’s stay in government.

With the GNU fairly stable, the ANC proceeds with its survival plan by signing into law the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill and Expropriation Bill, as well as gazetting new BEE sectoral targets. This is done against the wishes of its main coalition partner. The objective of these pieces of legislation is to “puff up” the ANC and give an impression to its voter base and the public that it is still in charge. The ANC is not in charge. It is being propped up by the DA.   

What the opposition in SA fails to realise is that all of this is a sleight of hand, an imaginary paralysis, a bluff. The election results have not changed. The ANC has still lost the election. The DA’s 21.8%, MK’s 14.6%, EFF’s 9.5%, IFP’s 3.8% and the Patriotic Alliance’s 2% can collectively usher in a government without the ANC. The opposition in SA is deliberately choosing to live in an imaginary world created by the ANC, against the voters’ wishes. 

South Africans need to understand that the national dialogue is another “life prolonging” innovation from the ANC. However, unlike the GNU, which is used to paralyse political parties, this “scheme” is directed at the entire population. In its quest to survive, the ANC is trying to create a fictional world where it is not accountable for the mismanagement of the past 30 years.

It is trying to create a “perpetrator-free” crime that is endorsed by the entire population. The national dialogue is the ANC’s attempt to press the reset button and wipe the slate clean so it can reposition itself as custodian of a new shared vision for SA. The dialogue in its current form is manipulation on a grand scale.

The reality is that SA’s economy is plagued with rising levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality and low growth. All of this is a direct result of the ANC’s failure. The ANC is the perpetrator. No well-functioning society would have a dialogue between a “victim” and a “perpetrator” on the perpetrator’s terms. The ANC is deciding on the who, what, when and how of the national dialogue. This is not a citizen-led dialogue. We are having a conversation at the pleasure of the ANC.

So, what do we do? South Africans should first realise that they do not need permission from government to have a conversation. Second, if there is funding needed for a dialogue this should come from the capitalists in this country. Capital played a major role in birthing our democracy. The time has arrived for them to rise again. And, finally, the church and broader faith community are best placed to oversee the process of a genuine national dialogue.

• Lecheko, a nonexecutive board member at the Incubation Centre of SA, is a national account manager with Unilever.