Durban - Contrary to the notion that if president Cyril Ramaphosa resigns ANC will suffer, two senior political analysts believe that the party will be better off without him.
Political analyst professor Sipho Seepe said the ANC stands to gain if the president were to leave, saying in the five years he has been at the helm he has failed to unite the party. He said in fact the president failed on all fronts as both leader of the party and of the country. Seepe said the president presided over a dysfunctional ANC which went to local government elections last year without the secretary-general, a position regarded as the engine of any party.
"The ANC stands to gain from Ramaphosa's departure for many reasons. He has failed as both the leader of the party and the country since there was nothing that was functional under his leadership. The party performed dismally in the local government elections and the economy is not growing, so we don't understand where the notion comes from, that the party will suffer if he leaves," said Seepe.
He added that for the first time in the history of the movement its workers were not paid and workers in the country were rejecting him when they booed him during the May rally. Professor Seepe also stated that even those who funded his campaign in 2017 were now regretting it. Furthermore, Seepe said the president campaigned on a ticket of transparency but he failed to be transparent in his own 2017 campaign which still haunts him today, and now the Phala Phala saga was adding to his woes.
"There is no reason why the ANC will suffer if the president were to leave. Even international media have written negative stories after the Section 89 Panel found he has violated his oath of office," said Seepe.
University Of Kwazulu-Natal head of politics Dr Fikile Mazibuko also dismissed as myth that the ANC will collapse if Ramaphosa were to leave, saying he was not irreplaceable. Mazibuko said there were many leaders of the party who were capable enough to take the baton from the president and move the party forward. She said the problem with the ANC is that there are those who believe that the only capable leaders were those who were involved in the armed struggle and exiled which she said was a myth that must also be dispelled.
She added that the party has not used its young generation optimally, especially those who came through the ranks of student politics to prepare them to take over the reigns from the older generation. She said looking at the current top 6 structure, the party was still led by the liberation generation.
Furthermore Mazibuko said it was not entirely correct to doubt Dr Zweli Mkhize's presidency based on the Digital Vibes tender scandal, since almost everyone in the party has ‘a corruption skeleton as per Bathabile Dlamini's words’. She said if Digital Vibes issue were to be ignored, Mkhize has what it takes to lead the party and the government. He’d been in the liberation struggle, led the KwaZulu-Natal as both premier and the party chairperson, right into the national arena as both minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and Health.
Since the release of the Section 89 Panel report on Wednesday the president has not been seen in public. His office cancelled several of his public engagements, including his promised address to the nation on Thursday. He was not present at the crucial special party's national executive committee meeting on Friday, forcing the meeting to be postponed. Although acting secretary-general Paul Mashatile said the NEC resolved that the Section 89 Panel report should have been discussed by the top six officials before coming to the NEC, insiders within the party said there were disagreements as to whether the meeting should go on without him. Many felt it was pointless to discuss the report without him being present.
Daily News