President Ramaphosa has displayed little of his much-vaunted negotiation skills in his dealings with American President Donald Trump.
Ramaphosa has been very poor at reading the enormous shift in American politics. He has shown little sign of understanding that the American president may be mercurial, theatrical and entirely unsubtle in his approach, but he is dogged, to put it mildly, in his determination to disrupt the global order.
More significant is the extent to which the ANC is completely out of touch with the people it purports to serve. This has been searingly apparent from the Social Research Foundation’s (SRF’s) most recent polling. Perhaps the finding that best sums up this gulf is that the ANC’s popularity with those polled is now at a sobering 31%. The Daily Friend Show’s episode entitled “ANC has cornered itself” is a must-watch analysis of the SRF’s polling results (here).
The IRR has long believed that what voters want from the ANC is very much more pragmatic and centrist than what is being offered. The SRF also concludes that those polled were much more knowledgeable about issues than those who govern them might assume.
Recent actions by those appointed to the ANC’s National Executive Committee’s sub-committees show how utterly unfit for purpose the ANC has become.
These sub-committees play an important role during ANC conferences and reflect the balance of power during proxy fights on policy.
ANC policies are currently key to determining the trajectory of our country. This trajectory has gone from bad to worse.
Faith Muthambi is the chair of the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee. Muthambi eviscerated the SABC and drove the appointment of Hlaudi Motsoeneng as CEO.
Just plain lied
After the ANC’s communications committee resolved that South Africa would use encrypted digital terrestrial television, Muthambi issued a statement saying that the committee had done no such thing. She simply lied.
Stella Ndabeni (Minister of Small Business Development) is now chair of the ANC’s local government intervention team. The 2026 local government elections will be crucial. Given the parlous state of Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni, the ANC needs a highly skilled and experienced committee chair. Ndabeni is not that person. Her ministerial role has displayed no particular skill, nor has she produced results benefiting our much benighted small businesses.
Thembi Simelane as Chair of the Local Government Intervention Team is mind-boggling. She was removed as justice minister because of allegations of corruption during her stint as mayor of Polokwane. Incredibly, Ramaphosa appointed her as Minister of Human Settlements.
Not as embarrassing, but somewhat questionable, is the appointment of Deputy DTIC Minister Zuko Godlimpi as the new chair of the Economic Transformation Committee. He was briefly the acting spokesperson for the ANC, but he is only in his early 30s and may well struggle in chairing the Committee’s debates.
Supra Mahumapelo, the failed premier of the basket-case that is the North West province, is now the deputy chair of the ANC’s International Relations Committee. The ANC’s first Deputy Secretary-General, Nomvula Mokonyane, remains the chair.
Shut off their Zoom link
A couple of weeks ago, when he chaired the Parliamentary Group on International Relations, Mahumapelo banned the Democratic Alliance (DA) representatives from meetings when they challenged him. The DA is the ANC’s most important partner in the Governmental of National Unity. With support from MK Party members of the committee, he shut off their Zoom link.
One shudders at the thought that Mokonyane and Mahumapelo will be influencing the ANC’s policy-making during Donald Trump’s term.
No wonder DA officials went on a working trip to Washington before Ramaphosa’s global explanatory junket got off the ground.
These are the NEC sub-committee officials whose input will be key in the ANC’s National General Council this year, as well as the local elections in 2026.
The ANC’s once not-insignificant intellectual heft has become intellectual impotence.
It threatens to take us all down with it.
[Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bensutherland/8485781041]
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