Johannesburg – The ANC twice postponed the meeting of its national executive committee (NEC) this week amid fears that factional fights over the criminal charges faced by the party’s secretary- general Ace Magashule could overshadow the organisation’s lekgotla.
The ANC NEC lekgotla brings together the party’s allies, Cosatu and SACP under one roof, together with the governing party’s senior public servants.
The lekgotla, which started on Friday and is scheduled to end tomorrow, is set to discuss the devastating spread of Covid-19 and how to rebuild the country’s battered economy.
It was a commendable decision to postpone the ordinary NEC meeting to February 13-14. Already, many leaders were preparing themselves to either push for the removal of Magashule or defend him.
Not that the ANC should not deal with the Magashule matter and the issue of corruption in general, which is eating away the dream of a better life for all.
However, the reality of the matter is that we are in the middle of a pandemic that is killing hundreds of South Africans daily, wreaking havoc on the economy and displacing hundreds of thousands of workers. We are in a war situation.
Our citizens are losing their lives and livelihoods. Yet it seems the biggest concern among many ANC leaders is internal fights and lining up their pockets by looting the Covid-19 billions.
The governing party, the leader of society, seems to be inward-looking at a time of the greatest crisis since World War I.
The country’s vaccine strategy is floundering. We are at the back of the queue in terms of securing millions of doses urgently needed to save lives. Factories are closing. Small businesses are going under.
Families are going hungry – while President Cyril Ramaphosa has confirmed that there is no relief in sight to help distressed citizens and businesses. This is the crisis that should pre-occupy comrades.
This is the moment, more than ever before, when the country needs the ANC to provide leadership.
As ANC, Cosatu and SACP leaders continue to engage in discussions today, it will do them well to remember the words of one of the continent’s greatest sons, Amilcar Cabral: “Always bear in mind that the people are not fighting for ideas, for the things in anyone’s head. They are fighting to win material benefits, to live better and in peace, to see their lives go forward, to guarantee the future of their children…”
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