SIBONGAKONKE SHOBA | ANC’s worst enemy not opposition but its own leaders

TheANC’s worst enemy is the party’s own leaders. In recent years, its greatest threat has not come from opposition parties but from its own leadership. Time and again, senior figures embarrass the party at crucial moments, handing rivals easy ammunition.

I hear some of them are in search of a traditional healer to come cleanse Luthuli House, believing that the party has been cursed and that is why it is losing votes. Well I have news for them,aniloyiwe, akunabathakathi(you have not been bewitched), you just need better leaders. It is the same party that electedJacob Zumaas its leader out of all the leaders the party had at the time.

Once in office, Zuma perfected the art of political own goals. Who can forget the Zuma years, when the party’s spin-doctors were constantly putting out the flames started by their leader. Almost weekly, ANC leaders had to explain or provide an explanation to Zuma’s misdemeanour.

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It was like chasing a toddler with a towel from one spill to another. The more things change, the more they stay the same. The DA and ActionSA hardly need manifestos when ANC leaders themselves provide endless material for ridicule.

Simply pointing to the party’s clownish behavior may be enough to convince voters that Luthuli House no longer deserves their trust. This strategy is already visible in Gauteng, where the DA hopes to wrest control of the three metros from ANC-led coalitions. The controversy over the DA’s billboard in Tshwane − depicting premier Panyaza Lesufi in a hotel shower − was less about opposition creativity than ANC vulnerability.

The party should blame itself for offering such golden election content. Almost weekly, an ANC leader delivers another blunder that deepens the party’s crisis of credibility. Consider ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe, who recently accused unemployed youth of laziness.

In a country with one of the highest jobless rates in the world, such remarks are not only insensitive but astonishingly out of touch with reality. While the party was still reeling from this misstep, another scandal emerged: the infamous “hotel shower” gaffe. Yet even that was quickly overshadowed by deputy minister of forestry, fisheries and the environment Bernice Swartz, who seemed determined to outdo her colleagues.

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