You may blame it on history. But, as one Jonathan Moyo would probably put it,  perennial wisdom from Devine revelation and human experience dictates that all earthily things, good or bad, beautiful or ugly, wise or foolish, sad or happy, fat or thin, attractive or repulsive, weak or strong, massive or tiny, must finally come to an end. Perhaps it is for this sobering reality that the ANC, which has had its better days almost for a quarter of a century must realize that time has come for it to accept that South Africans can no longer rely on the emotive historical narrative that places Blacks and Whites on “Us vs Them” line of reasoning. It is perhaps for this sobering reality that the ruling ANC should also accept that telling the black electorate that the DA is nothing more than a white political party masquerading as a non-white organization does not make the ANC grow, rather it simply makes the white ANC members and supporters to question their relevance in the party which they have for long embraced as their political home. It also boggles the mind of those traditionalist ANC supporters to question the future of their party that aspires to create a none-racial, just society within which all South Africans, regardless of the color of their skin, may live in harmony in a racially inclusive society. Surely, this is not what Nelson Mandela and other historic iconic figures in the history of the movement fought for.  Even more disheartening was the recurring sentiment that the members of the ANC allowed the president to make in every house, church, bottle store, school and other areas he visited in the run-up to the elections that black and white people in South Africa are not meant to co-exist in one political organization. This, to a considerable extent, dealt a blow to the ANC as voters surely will see nothing wrong with living side by side with one another regardless of their racial differences. After all, this is what a “Rainbow Nation” should be all about!

Perhaps the ruling ANC should be reminded that there is nowhere in the world where a liberation movement has become a government, lost its power and credibility, and managed to regain it. Robert Mugabe will be better suited to remind Jacob Zuma on this one, Libya, Egypt, Algeria and others are recent cases that come to mind. Perhaps it is also important to remind the ruling ANC that liberal ideological beliefs fade with time. Also, perhaps it is for this same reason that Karl Marks in his ‘The Communist Manifesto’ reminds us that any ruling party has an inherent seed that will destroy it from within. Clearly, the ANC has its own seed to engulf its historic ideological stand-point. And this is not through any personality within the leadership structures, but its very profound arrogant nature and tendency to deride every positive move that comes from the opposition benches. This, more often than not, makes the ANC to behave more like they are themselves the opposition. In this regard, the ANC may need to be reminded that political ideologies are themselves socio-political constructs and, as such, they interact and often overlap! To clarify, the DA’s post-racial liberal ideology does not so much differ from the ANC’s socialist liberal ideology, which is also not so detached from the EFF’s Neo-Marxism. Their common denominator is to liberate the marginalized, to speak for the subaltern!

Unless the ruling party has come to notice that something  is too wrong within their system of governance and political position within the South African political landscape, the party’s support will continue to spiral to the south! Their acknowledgement should include that the electorate can no longer be fooled; second, they cannot continue to defend the obvious, third, they need to make a serious change of personnel, and retrospectively and introspectively, they should address their divisive, dominant narrative of putting racism and condemnatory racist approaches to winning the heart of the electorate. The world is fast changing, and so do the ideological beliefs in the country’s politics.

By Thompson wa ka Mabunda

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