Editorial: ANC’s sad decline

Cape Town - The expulsion from the ANC of former party spokesperson Carl Niehaus sums up the current degeneration and lawlessness in the movement.

So does the banning of national executive committee (NEC) members Tony Yengeni and Bathabile Dlamini from contesting leadership positions.

The trio are among vocal opponents of President Cyril Ramaphosa, and have been at the forefront of demands for him to account and implement the ANC’s 54th national conference resolutions.

This week, the ANC’s national disciplinary committee expelled Niehaus for alleged crimes committed last year.

The governing party’s electoral committee, chaired by Kgalema Motlanthe, banned Yengeni and Dlamini from contesting for NEC positions ostensibly because of their previous criminal convictions.

Motlanthe and the ANC have been hauled before the high court in a separate matter for allegedly having tampered with branch nomination figures to prevent Ramaphosa’s opponents from contesting for NEC positions.

Niehaus’s alleged crimes include making disparaging remarks about Ramaphosa and demanding his removal from office.

Yengeni’s is a criminal conviction more than 15 years ago. If the ANC follows up on its sudden criteria, nearly half of its leaders at all levels would be disqualified.

Take for example, NEC members Derek Hanekom and Ronald Lamola.

Like Niehaus, Lamola embarked on the so-called one-man protests before the ANC’s 2017 conference demanding the removal of former president Jacob Zuma.

Hanekom collaborated with opposition parties to unseat a sitting ANC president. He also once ridiculed and publicly distanced himself from ANC policies, especially nationalisation and land expropriation without compensation.

The ANC never sanctioned the duo. Why? Because they are part of the dominant Ramaphosa faction.

It’s a clear degeneration into the law of the jungle similar to the last years of former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe’s leadership of Zanu-PF.

What happened to Niehaus, Dlamini and Yengeni mirrors the state of the ANC, and how the party has abandoned its values and the so-called broad church mantra in favour of a small faction with shared economic interests.

Cape Times