Perhaps the biggest question in politics at present is whether the ANC has learnt the lessons of the 2024 elections. And if so, can its National General Council convince voters of that? President Cyril Ramaphosa has made no secret that the motif of his Presidency of the ANC has been to “renew” the party.
He took office in 2017, promising to remove corruption and to change the way the ANC and its members behave. The aim heading into the 2019 elections was to give voters the prospect of hope. He was saying to them that if they voted for the ANC, the ANC would change.
Now, nearly seven years later, voters want to see proof that the party is in fact changing. This is what makes this National General Council (NGC) of the ANC so important. It is the party’s last chance before the local government elections to demonstrate that, in fact, it has changed.
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The past month has been dominated by the revelations of the Madlanga Commission and the Parliamentary ad hoc committee inquiry into corruption in the police (strangely, there has been complete radio silence from the other inquiry, by Parliament’s Intelligence Committee, which normally meets in secret). In a twist that was probably unforeseen, this has ended up focusing on Ekurhuleni. Imogen Mashazi, the former city manager there, has almost personified the problems in local government.
She gave the strong impression that she was completely out of touch with reality and, in particular, the law. The fact that someone could behave in such a manner is, in the end, only because of the ANC. It created the situation that allowed a person to behave like this, first in office, and then on the stand.
That she has displayedhuge amounts of blingin the past is also an indication of how the ANC has run many municipalities. This presents itself as evidence of simple corruption.
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