SA Politics Part 14 - The New Dawn turns to Dusk

ANC devours itself from within as voters steadily turn their backs​


They should have seen it coming, the sages will say. The ANC should have seen the signs of rapid decline during the launch of its 2016 local government election manifesto in Port Elizabeth, now Gqeberha.

The party could not fill the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, a feat that was previously easily achieved in the erstwhile stronghold. Party hacks ran around claiming that bus companies (presumably working with the ANC’s opponents) had sabotaged the event by not turning up to pick up supporters in townships around the metro.
That is when the crowd began streaming out. By the time then ANC president Jacob Zuma started speaking, the exodus was in full swing. Pleas from the podium to show the leader some respect by staying seated fell on deaf ears, or no ears at all.

Bored by the whole affair, thousands of ANC supporters chose to go and frolic on the beach or window-shop at the local malls until the stipulated departure time.
They had heard all the promises, boasts and excuses before. The trip was great fun and was definitely worth it, but they had no obligation to sit through the dreary proceedings. Again the party hacks went into spin overdrive. It was the heat that drove the crowds away, not disengagement from the ANC’s messages.

Over the past weekend, the ANC gathered in Diepsloot, Johannesburg, to launch its manifesto ahead of what is expected to be a humiliating municipal election in November. It was a rather low-energy affair in a community park, far from the mega-stadiums where the party has previously launched its manifestos.

The reasoning behind choosing the small, unglamorous setting was that the Riverside settlement is seen by the ANC as a model for delivering to poor communities. Housing people mostly resettled from inhospitable land in Alexandra, it is a mixed-income development that is nestled between the poverty-stricken Diepsloot, upmarket Fourways and filthy-rich Steyn City. Rental units can go for under R3,000 and bonded houses can be had for up to R550,000.

It is now common cause that the ANC went into the launch with egg yolk dripping from its collective forehead. Because of factional politics, the party had already missed several deadlines for announcing mayoral candidates for the metros and secondary cities but still insisted throughout last week, with much gusto, that it would do so at a Sandton shindig on Saturday.

That did not come to pass. Instead it provided short lists that were in fact long lists. It then went into a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting to finalise the list, where more fighting took place. Next, the ANC told us that it would require its councillors to have matric and that those without matric would have 12 months after the elections to get a matric or an equivalent qualification.

So what do you have here? You have a party in disarray, unable to cohere on anything other than the sowing of chaos. After its decades-long frenzy of feeding on the state coffers, it’s now eating itself from within. To death.
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www.dailymaverick.co.za

ANC devours itself from within as voters steadily turn their backs

Factional warfare, patronage battles and years of electoral decline have left the party on its last legs as it heads for a bruising outcome in South Africa’s municipal elections in November.…
www.dailymaverick.co.za www.dailymaverick.co.za
 
TheChamp said:
I wonder how that would work in real life.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2093336271007387683
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The DA likes to complain about the lack of street lights in Tshwane. These were working when they came into power. The DA decided not to fund street light maintenance and they were in their current state by the time the new crowd came in. The deterioration of the street lighting happened on the DA's watch, something they are hoping people have forgotten.
 
Mampara of the Week: Dada Morero

For swearing at residents who were insulting him. Lol, when you get insulted in your former township strongholds, you have no hope. @TheChamp just needs to realise this. Long gone are the days of the ANC getting 80% in Soweto, which they needed to counter the strong DA performance in the northern suburbs of JHB. The turnout in DA wards is going to be off the charts!
 
Inertia said:
Is this normal for “greatest liberation movements of all time”? Asking for a friend
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had to confirm with a friend.
apparently it is "great liberation movement" tradition.

it begins with an "it's my time to eat" mentality.
the mentality breeds like vermin and spreads like locusts, and soon enough the great movement is consuming everything in eyesight.

then of course comes the end of the beginning - or perhaps its the beginning of the end, and we see the movement morph into an auto-canabalistic animal eventually consuming itself from the inside.
decades later all that remains are its sun-bleached bones scattered under the scorching african sun
 
Grant said:
had to confirm with a friend.
apparently it is "great libation movement" tradition.

it begins with an "it's my time to eat" mentality.
the mentality breeds like vermin and spreads like locusts, and soon enough the great 'bowel' movement is consuming everything in eyesight.

then of course comes the end of the beginning - or perhaps its the beginning of the end, and we see the movement morph into an auto-canabalistic animal eventually consuming itself from the inside.

decades later all that remains are its sun-bleached bones scattered under the scorching african sun
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Our Turn To Eat.jpg

Locust Plague - ANC - 2026 Edition.jpg
 
Nom Chompsky said:
ANC will be lucky to get 20% in eThekwini given MK's dominance. By the way, the DA will probably beat the ANC in eThekwini as well. Oh, the humiliation!
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What is humiliating is accepting that you are a 20% party and can go no further, the best thing you can do is pin your hopes on Zuma, that is humiliating.
 
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