The week that was showed how the ANC’s legitimacy as the "standard bearer of society and champion of its freedoms" has been eroded. The ANC and its government are reaping a whirlwind of their own making.
It is exposing how the fatal weaknesses of the organisation have eroded its standing in society. The ANC, in its national executive committee statement this week, could only condemn the looting, unrest and acts of criminality. It did not immediately release its leaders to address affected communities in an attempt to appease the situation. It is not the first time.
During the mining protests which led to the Marikana massacre, ANC-aligned unionists from the National Union of Mineworkers addressed members from armoured police vehicles instead of mingling with them on the ground.
Similarly, this time around, President Cyril Ramaphosa condemned the protests in a televised address, while many people were out looting.
The police minister and other security cluster ministers were missing in action until Tuesday morning, days after the unrest spiralled out of control. Intelligence minister Ayanda Dlodlo sounded completely out of her depth — spouting theories on who is at the heart of the unrest, from former intelligence operatives to right-wing elements, as well as the rising possibility of xenophobic violence. Police minister Bheki Cele mumbled on about hand-washing and sanitising as scenes of looting, with police looking on, became a regular feature of television broadcasts.
Addressing the matter from her home via Zoom, defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula barely looked at the camera on her laptop as she waffled on about the number of troops deployed and how a state of emergency was simply not required yet.
Elsewhere, leadership was being shown. It is understood that in areas of the Western Cape, Limpopo, North West, Gauteng and Mpumalanga, taxi associations were mobilising communities to protect their malls and stores from looters.
The ANC, the alliance and even the state can no longer be counted on to lead within communities
In the Eastern Cape taxi bosses vowed to stop the looting — the SA National Taxi Association got involved in protecting property in order to save jobs.
A video of an Mpumalanga ANC leader showing leadership (a rarity) also surfaced. He was explaining, to community members lined up to guard the area, how the Zuma matter was one of "justice" but also how people would lose jobs if malls were destroyed. Posters emerged in the Eastern Cape, North West, Limpopo, the Northern and Western Cape calling on communities to defend their malls and spaces.
At the same time, voice notes circulated about groups urging communities in these same provinces to join the anarchy in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. Unless community leaders, churches, local business leaders and yes, taxi associations, increase their vigilance in these provinces, more impoverished communities are vulnerable to be drawn in to the unrest.
The ANC, the alliance and even the state have been so significantly weakened that they cannot be counted on to lead within communities. At its 2017 national conference, then ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe candidly admitted that there was a "growing gap" between the movement and communities.
"The legitimacy of our movement as the standard bearer in society, and champion of its freedoms, is in serious threat," Mantashe said at the time.
The truth is that ANC structures, which in the past could be counted on to step in and quell community uprisings, have long disappeared. ANC structures and its membership are for "utility purposes" only and that "utility" is as election fodder, to prop up leaders in their selfish, individual pursuit of power. The erstwhile leaders of society are firmly relics of history.
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