THERE is a worker song that trade unionists always haul out when spirits are flagging at their protest marches or funerals. It is particularly loved by members of the SA Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers' Union.
To a catchy tune, the chorus goes: “Ma ku lwiwe! Ma ku lwiwe!” (Let's have the fight! Let's have the fight!).
It's an angry song, a call to break the deadlock, to have the deciding battle so that it is clear who is in charge and who is not.
It may be time for a major, open crisis and battle inside the ANC.
It may be time for the two main, opposing sides within the party to lance the boil that is poisoning the country.
It may be time for things to come to a head, because the extended period of low-level fighting within the party has led to paralysis in the state. Perhaps the social grants crisis will be that moment, that major trigger for a blowout.
Dialogue has failed. President Jacob Zuma is reportedly not talking to his deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa. The president is not talking to his long-time allies the SACP. They have threatened a walk out if there is a cabinet reshuffle. The president seems to be estranged from his previously very voluble main support, Cosatu.
Zuma, wounded, surrounded by the motley crew of the corrupt and incompetent (like Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini) that he has built around him, and not as powerful as he used to be, skulks in his lair, unable to act. His detractors wait for him to strike via a cabinet reshuffle or trumped-up charges from the captured National Prosecuting Authority, in the meantime girding their loins for battle. They know that Zuma is not all-powerful. If he fires Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, as his acolytes Jimmy Manyi, the Guptas and others want, then punishment will be swift and painful: the rand will tank, the ratings agencies will go negative and political uncertainty will ratchet up. Foreign direct investment will lag behind that of other emerging markets. Unemployment will tick up and economic growth will stall.
Even Zuma and his cronies, usually uncaring about consequence (Zuma knowingly slept with an HIV-positive woman without a care for the consequence), are wary of the fallout from such a reckless move.
Zuma's opponents are similarly petrified. They do not raise their voices too high. They do not act or speak against the man they believe is surely, swiftly, taking them over the cliff edge. They wait for someone else to speak. They entreat the media and civil society to speak. They beg the veterans to speak. But all these formations quiver and shake when Zuma appears in front of them. The veterans, the MK leaders, all of them have been cunningly outmanoeuvred and outwitted by the wily Zuma. They are, as the Afrikaans say, tjoepstil — as quiet as a mouse.
We, the people, suffer from this stalemate within the ANC. Policies are not being implemented. Corruption flourishes and billions meant for the poor fly out of the country to Dubai.
Populist rhetoric devoid of any real content becomes the order of the day. The stresses on our society intensify.
That is why we need a battle inside the ANC. We need a real, monumental crisis. We cannot afford this wishy-washy holding pattern. It is costing us and our country dearly. We need a blowout.
Zuma should fire Gordhan, Mcebisi Jonas, Ramaphosa and Derek Hanekom. He should fire Blade Nzimande and Thulas Nxesi and all the other SACP leaders within his cabinet. He should call them in, one by one, and tell them that as is his constitutional prerogative they should clear their desks and go. Then he can do what he really wants to do: install the “corrupt bastard” Brian Molefe in finance, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as his deputy and Manyi as his special adviser. He should then swiftly implement his new plan, the much-vaunted radical economic transformation.
If Zuma doesn't do this, Ramaphosa, Gordhan and their cohort should make it clear whenever Zuma and his cronies open their mouths that they are not about the cronyism, the looting, the corruption that stinks to high heaven around the president. They should tell him straight that he is taking the ANC straight out of power and to electoral and historical oblivion. They should challenge him instead of being so quisling about it all.
South Africa's poor economy ground to a halt in 2016. This year it will cough and stutter a bit and we will all clap and slap ourselves on the back.
Wake up, people! Nine million people are unemployed and 17 million social grants are paid every year. What's the plan to get people into jobs? Where is the implementation?
No plan is being implemented because the ANC is in a low-level war with itself. Nothing gets done. Everything is stuck in limbo.
We need a crisis, badly, so that this frustrating logjam can be broken. We can't afford it any more.
Ma ku lwiwe!
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