If cognitive dissonance were a horse, the OR Tambo Radisson Hotel this weekend would have been deafened by an equine stampede.
This at a summit of African liberation movements, with participants hailing from political paragons Zanu-PF (Zimbabwe), Frelimo (Mozambique), Chama Cha Mapinduzi (Tanzania), the MPLA (Angola), Swapo (Namibia) and, of course, our own ANC.
Observers reportedly included representatives from Russia and China. So, democracy clearly front and centre.
Among other issues, the event was set to consider why, exactly, the liberation movements are losing influence, the ANC’s Supra Mahumapelo told News24.
That’s a four-day meeting, costing in the hundreds of thousands of rands, that could have been an email: because of increasing venality, increasing corruption, jailing of opponents, torturing of activists, the brutal crushing of dissent, and betrayal of the promises of the revolution and the dividends of democracy.
Take Zimbabwe, which scores 26 out of 100 in Freedom House’s global freedom index. That’s down to rigged elections, the clampdown on opposition politicians and activists, and an economy in thrall to a venal ruling party.
Over in Tanzania (35/100), opposition politicians are jailed, and activists were recently disappeared, tortured, sexually assaulted and dumped on the border with Kenya. There’s been a shrinking of the democratic space, the forcible evictions of Masaai communities, mass arrests and repression, according to the international human rights NGO.
Last year’s election in Mozambique (41/100) was marred by allegations of irregularities, with government repressing dissent and reports of more than 100 protestors killed.
In all these countries, corruption is endemic, and there are huge disparities between the average citizen and the parasitic, kleptocratic political class.
So it was rich to read a report by Inside Politics of Deputy President Paul Mashatile saying at the event: “We did not fight to liberate our people only to create space for the enrichment of elites.”
This from a man himself bogged down by allegations of corruption, who reportedly stays in a R37m house in Waterfall and has a R28.9m house in Cape Town at his disposal. Talk about cognitive dissonance.
Sinking further into the abyss
That’s not just Mashatile; it’s an ANC-wide phenomenon. And, as was clear from last year’s polls, the electorate is tired of it. Tired of the endless promises of delivering economic growth, and the benefits accruing therefrom, but instead sinking further into the morass of corruption.
The party’s cognitive dissonance leaves it unable to internalise its own failures as cause for its downfall. Hence its apparent consideration, as per weekend reports, of state capture lackey Lynne Brown as its next candidate for premier of the Western Cape, the country’s second most economically important province.
It’s gob smacking to put forward a person who was – as former chief justice Raymond Zondo put it – a “witting participant” in the capture of state institutions such as Eskom and Denel. It speaks to how utterly out of touch the party is with an electorate that’s fed up with corruption.
In case the ANC needs it spelt out: it’s that kind of action that’s losing it support at the polls – and will continue to do so.
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