Desperate times call for desperate measures, so the adage goes.
This should be the thinking among many of the ANC top brass following the flop that was the January 8 Statement anniversary rally in the North West last weekend.
The event, mainly organised by the provincial executive committee (PEC), was not a good way to start a year in which the local government elections will be held.
Ordinarily, it should have been an event that is a show of force, especially by a liberation movement, the oldest in Africa.
Instead, it was an occasion in which the decay of the ANC was in full glare, with the party of OR Tambo and Nelson Mandela failing to fill up a 20, 000-capacity Moruleng Stadium.
Opposition had a field day
Opposition parties leaders, as expected, were having the time of their lives. They were poking fun at the ANC for this flop, with EFF President Julius Malema and MKP second-in-command Tony Yengeni leading the charge.
The narrative all over social media platform was standard: how the mighty have fallen.
The question lingering in the air after this calamity is whether the ANC leadership at national executive committee (NEC) level will take collective responsivity or hold those responsible for organising – the PEC, accountable.
The initial signs are that collective responsibility, or rather denialism, will be the mantra after party head honchoes spent the whole weekend trying to justify why the stadium was not full.
While some of the reasons, chiefly the logistical nightmare it is to hold an event of that magnitude in a rural stadium hold water, it still does not negate that these glitches should have been foreseen by a proactive organising team and put measures in place to rise above logistical challenges.
PR nightmare for ANC
The primary question is still why Moruleng was the preferred venue for such an event when the Royal Mafokeng Stadium, which logistically is sounder, was available? It’s a simple fact of being disorganised. And a leadership more concerned with lining their pockets through business deals than working for the people, part of the great fall of the once mighty ANC.
The whole show became a huge embarrassment and PR nightmare for the ANC. The same ANC whose top brass, if the renewal agenda they preach every day is anything to go by, must be seen to act to avoid same soon.
It is also a question of consistent consequence management applied equally against failure.
Last year, the PECs of Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape were disbanded for losing elections in the 2024 national and provincial elections (NPE).
Some will argue that messing up a crucial national event such as an anniversary rally in an election year is an equivalent if not worse of a transgression.
Will they disband the PEC?
Thus, the natural question becomes whether the ANC NEC will move to disband the ANC North West PEC to send a strong message that mediocrity will not be tolerated or will leadership just move on as if nothing happened as the once glorious ANC slides deeper into the abyss?
Not only did the North West PEC fail to fill the main Moruleng Stadium, but many did not even notice there was an overflow area next door which did not even take off.
Talk about wasteful expenditure of the mounted stage and big screen, especially by an organisation that periodically struggles to pay its own staff due to dried up coffers.
In the upcoming ANC NEC meeting, which will also act as a post-mortem for the January 8 Statement rally, proponents of disbandment will be well within their right and justified to move the motion for disbandment. But it suffices to add some may be proposing this for narrow political reasons.
Factional alignments at play
What will complicate the disbandment proposal are political considerations. These are mainly factional alignments and the fact that this is the year the North West is due to go to its provincial conference anyway.
Factionally speaking, a move to disband North West PEC will be seen as a purge of forces close to ANC deputy president Paul Mashatile who is a known ally of provincial chairperson Nono Maloyi.
But should these political considerations stand in the way of consequence management and renewal agenda? Only time will tell.
